Testing a New Drug: Controls, Placebo and the Blind Trial · seed 1 · A4, ink-friendly. The answer key prints on its own page for grown-ups.

Testing drugs without fooling yourself

Science · Scientific Inquiry · ages 15-16
Name ______________________   Date ____________

  1. Why are patients split at random?

    • To save paperwork
    • To scrub hidden differences like age or lifestyle
    • To please the drug maker

  2. What is a placebo?

    • A smaller dose of the drug
    • An identical-looking dummy with nothing in it
    • A different drug

  3. Without a placebo group, a mindset boost can look like drug chemistry.

    Circle one:   True   False

  4. Why blind the patients to their group?

    • So all groups expect the same benefit and behave the same way
    • So they sleep better
    • So they never meet doctors

  5. What does a placebo rule out, and what does it leave open?

    • It rules out expectation but not observer bias
    • It rules out everything at once
    • It rules out nothing at all

  6. Why double blind instead of stopping at single blind?

    • It uses twice the pills
    • Researchers stay unaware too, blocking unequal care and biased reading
    • It shortens the trial

  7. A drug shines in 20 healthy volunteers and the maker seeks prescriptions now. What remains?

    • A new name for the pill
    • Nothing: small safety success is enough
    • Large efficacy trials in hundreds or thousands, then monitoring after approval

  8. A survey links coffee to sharper memory and a maker claims proof. What is missing?

    • A bigger survey
    • An experiment that assigns the treatment with a control group
    • A louder claim
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Answer key

For grown-ups. Fold this page away before handing over the rest.

Testing drugs without fooling yourself W1-mt_If6qHIrOxT-s1

  1. To scrub hidden differences like age or lifestyle · Random splits leave the drug as the only systematic difference.
  2. An identical-looking dummy with nothing in it · The dummy shows what recovery without the drug looks like.
  3. True · Expectation alone moves bodies, so trials must subtract it.
  4. So all groups expect the same benefit and behave the same way · Equal expectations keep behaviour from becoming a second treatment.
  5. It rules out expectation but not observer bias · Equal belief is handled, while researcher-side bias needs blinding.
  6. Researchers stay unaware too, blocking unequal care and biased reading · Single blinding leaves a researcher-shaped gap that double blinding closes.
  7. Large efficacy trials in hundreds or thousands, then monitoring after approval · Early safety asks if it harms; only staged larger trials ask if it beats placebo.
  8. An experiment that assigns the treatment with a control group · Watching spots links, while only assigned treatment shows the drug made the change.
Worksheet · LightMySky