🌲What Is The Difference Between Correlation And Causation?🌲

🌲Hello and welcome back to the forest of learning! In this post, you will see the process of creating a survey to identify correlations within the PLP population at seycove. This was a partner project, and I was able to work with Gwen (Go check out her blog!), a lovely human. In this project, my partner and I created a survey about sleep schedules affecting different variables in your life. Gwen was an awesome partner, and this was an awesome project! If you would like to see the process of creating our survey as well as collecting and presenting data, keep reading🌲

⬇️As always, we followed the project path throughout the course of the project⬇️

To start off this project, as a class we looked at examples of correlations and causations in data, and how to differentiate between the two. We learned that a correlation is when two things are connected to each other, or have a relationship between one another but do not cause each other. Causation however is when one thing causes another thing. It can be difficult to identify the two, but understanding the difference between them is vital for this project.

On the first day, we took this quiz. This quiz told us how tall we will be when we are grown up. After completing it individually, we reviewed it as a class. We identified which questions were flawed, which ones were well done, the accuracy of the survey itself, and found correlations and causations within the data. Overall, we found this quiz was not very accurate and couldn’t have been improved.

If you would like to take the Quiz, CLICK HERE!

After reviewing an example in class, we created a mindmap. The mindmap consisted of our questions and newly gained knowledge about correlations and causations. I didn’t know much about this topic, so it was definitely a shorter mindmap compared to mindmaps I have completed previously in Scimatics.

For the “Building Knowledge” portion of the project, we worked through textbook pages as a class to further our understanding and expose us to new vocabulary. Through these textbook pages, we learned how to create a well-made survey, how to create ethical and well written questions, the different populations/samples we could gather information from, as well as identify the different surveys we could create. These textbooks were very helpful when it came to crafting our survey, and I definitely learned a lot.

In class, we participated in our first time gathering and plotting data on a chart. We filled out a numbers document with data from our peers. In this activity, we were able to identify a correlation between the height and hand size of a person. Often, the taller you are, the larger your hand will be. Although some may believe this is a causation, it isn’t. Being tall does not cause you to have large hands. In this activity, I was also disappointed to find that my friend Nolan is officially 2.5cm taller than me, and I resent him for it. 

Before I get into the actual survey portion, it is important to understand the different types of correlations there are:

Image source

Now, lets get started on our survey! Gwen and I were interested in seeing how students in PLP are affected by their sleep schedules, so why not create a survey for it? We spent time creating our survey questions and identified causations and correlations we predicted to find within our data (spoiler: we found that our predictions were incorrect). We made a plan, and were prepared and ready to start crafting our survey!

⬇️Here were our survey questions ad overall plan of our survey⬇️

We tweaked, removed, and added questions when creating our actual survey

Creating our survey is fairly self explanatory. We used Google Forms and copy & pasted our questions into the survey. Google Forms is actually really handy! Other than the occasional glitch, it was a great tool to craft our survey. We went through many drafts (with feedback from peers) before creating our final survey.

⬇️Here were our drafts! ⬇️

I also drew the cover art for our survey, and I really enjoyed the design I created!

🎯 Here was our FINAL Survey which is still accepting responses if you would like to fill it out! 🎯

Once creating our final survey, we sent the entire population of PLP learners our survey. We did this through Learner Central in Basecamp, and it allowed us to gather a voluntary response sample from the population. 

Learner central message:

Gathering our data this way was not the most accurate. Unfortunately, only 20 students filled out our survey out of the 120+ students in the program. But, on the good side, we were able to gather data from all grades in PLP, which allowed us to still have a somewhat accurate result in our data by the end of it. 

When we were finished collecting responses, we inputted all of our data into this chart:

This way, we were able to see which questions in our data had correlations with one another in an efficient way (even if it wasn’t the most organized 😅) 

Before I continue on to the last phase of the project, I wanted to explain how Gwen and I collaborated throughout the project. We worked well together and supported one another’s ideas. She was a great partner, and we both did well at staying focussed and productive in class. Here, we both expressed a sophisticated understanding of the core competency “Applying and Innovating” because we worked together to use our time efficiently and create a final product we are both proud of.

Once collecting our data, we identified correlations and causations within our data and started forming a presentation! To wrap this project up, Gwen and I created a Keynote presentation that expressed the correlations and causation we found within our data. We presented to our PLP Scimatics 9 class. In this part, I believe I expressed the competencies “Communicating and Representing”, as well as “Planning and Conducting”. While presenting, I expressed a sophisticated example of communicating my work. I was able to explain my understanding to the class in a clear way, and I am proud of the way that I did it. I also prepared for this presentation, and crafted it with thought, and therefore I believe I expanded on these skills throughout this phase of the project.

Here was our presentation:

Finally, we ended the project with a “Project End Mindmap” where we added to the mindmap we created in the beginning of the project. I answered my previous questions, added new information, and expanded on my original thoughts from my first mindmap.

🌲Overall, this project was not my favourite. I know that the work I produced in this project was not my best, and I could have definitely improved many things. I found it was more difficult for me to stay motivated and engaged in this project, and although I learned a lot about the concept, I didn’t end up producing the work that I know I am capable of, and that is perfectly ok! – I am still so proud of myself. I believe this is mainly because I had many things I was stressing about in other aspects of my life. My partner Gwen was absolutely lovely, and she was a great person to work with! Although I am not happy with my work in the project, I am still extremely proud of myself, even if it didn’t turn out the way I originally expected to. So, What is the difference between correlation and causation? Well, correlation is when two concepts have a relationship or connect to each other in some way, while causation is when two concepts not only connect, but also causes one thing to occur because of the other. I learned a lot in this project, and as always I hope you enjoyed watching me grow in the forest of🌲

🌲learning🌲