Exploring Bioethics - NIH Office of Science Education - National ...

5. Ask students to open their envelopes, and tell them that, as is thecase in all clinical trials, they should expect the study to have arange of outcomes. They will be affected in different ways.1The following table summarizes the outcomes if you used the 12Master 5.2 sections:Outcome Control ExperimentalWorse 25% (3/12) 0No change 17% (2/12) 8% (1/12)Better and no side effects 8% (1/12) 25% (3/12)Better but gained 4.5 kg (10 lbs.) 0 8% (1/12)Better but severe rash 0 8% (1/12)26. Ask all the students who were in the control group to stand. Askthem to raise their hands (one group at a time) if their asthma gotworse, stayed the same, or got better.7. Ask students, “Why do you think the asthma of some of theparticipants in the control group, all of whom received theplacebo, seemed to improve?”3Students’ responses could include that participants improved due torandom causes, psychosomatic effects, or other causes not associatedwith the study.8. Ask students, “Was this a randomized controlled study, a blindstudy, or a double-blind study?”The study was randomized, controlled, and blind. This was a blind studybecause the researcher (teacher) knew who was in the control and theexperimental groups, but the participants (students) did not.49. Ask all the students who were in the experimental group to stand.Ask them to raise their hands (one group at a time) if their asthmagot worse, stayed the same, or got better.10. Ask the students whose asthma got worse to share with the classwhether they had any side effects.11. Ask the students whose asthma got better to share with the classwhether they had any side effects.512. Ask students who chose not to be in the study to comment onthe results.Module 5 5-156