Most college instructors prefer to have their students participate actively in class. Ideally, students will ask their professor questions and answer their professor’s questions, making the classroom experience more interesting and useful. Many professors seek ways to encourage their students to participate in class. A statistics professor at a community college in upper New York state believes that there are a number of external factors that affect student participation. He believes that the time of day and the configuration of seats are two such factors. Consequently, he organized the following experiment. Six classes of about 60 students each were scheduled for one semester. Two classes were scheduled at 9:00 a.m., two at 1:00 p.m., and two at 4:00 p.m. At each of the three times, one of the classes was assigned to a room where the seats were arranged in rows of 10 seats. The other class was a U-shaped, tiered room, where students not only face the instructor, but face their fellow students as well. In each of the six classrooms, over five days, student participation was measured by counting the number of times students asked and answered questions. These data are displayed in the accompanying table.

a. How many factors are there in this experiment? What are they?

b. What is the response variable?

c. Identify the levels of each factor.

d. What conclusions can the professor draw from these data?

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Time Class Configuration 9:00 A.M. 1:00 P.M. 4:00 P.M. Rows 10 12 12 14 12 20 U-Shape 15 18 4 4 4 13 13 4 6