How are causation and correlation different?

Introduction:

How do people define correlation and causation and how different are these two words? In this project I find out the answer to this question and find connections between two different things that I didn’t think would have a similar relationship. For this project we were tasked with creating at least two graphs, one would include correlation without causation and another would include causation with correlation. However, before we worked on these graph we had to have an understanding of what correlations and causation is. Correlation is when two variable have a similar relationship or pattern, causation is when one variable is the direct cause for another variable. Overall, this project made me really understand what correlation and causation mean. 

Milestone Three:

In Milestone 3, I was tasked with creating questions for a survey. This survey would have to include at least 10 questions which will be used to create graphs with correlation. The group I was in decided to make our questions related to Covid-19 and how it affects/relates to travel. Additionally, we decided on doing a online voluntary survey, this survey would give the choice for someone to do our survey and would be created using google forms. One thing I wished I could do again in this survey was try to find another relationship other that how Covid-19 and travel are related. This would make it so our milestone three would have more question and potential results that would lead to correlation or causation. In general, this part the project would reflect my growth throughout the entire project.

Milestone Four:

For milestone 4 , we had to create two graph with the results from our survey. These graphs must clearly have correlation and be somewhat organized in your number document. Our questions that we tried to correlate on our number document was have you travelled out of the province vs have you travelled out of the province last year and the amount of Covid-19 case vs. how many time we hangout with friends. We later in the project changed the second one to Covid-19 cases on the weekend vs how many people hangout with friend/extended family on that weekend. One thing I wished we could of improved upon was organization of the document. This is due many of my fellow classmate finding it difficult to understand my number document unless I explain it to them. Milestone four was tough, however, I still believe it taught me a great deal concerning how to create a graph that has correlation present. 

Milestone Six:

Milestone six is when we had to present our correlation to the entire class. Before hand, we had to create a keynote presentation  and a script that would accurately explain our graphs and survey. In our presentation, we included three correlations, the two mention before and one extra correlation with causation comparing how much people enjoyed our survey vs. What grade the participant was in. One thing I wished we could of improve upon was practice the presenting of the information before hand. This is due during the actual presentation, I made a great deal of mistakes, these mistakes include stutter, shaking and showing slides on the screen that weren’t suppose to be there yet. Overall, this project was extremely difficult, however, gave me a great understanding on correlation and causation.

Core Competence:

Planning and conjunction: Select and use appropriate equipment, including digital technologies, to systematically and accurately collect and record data

For this project, I believe that I have somewhat met this specific competence. This is due to a great deal of my survey results being very messy and many changes to what questions should we ask were done last minute. I created a total of three online survey for this project, the reason for creating this many surveys was due to the fact that I wasn’t able to find correlation in the results of the first survey. However, I feel I succeeded in showing my correlations and explaining them to the audience. I create three correlations for this project and for each explanation I had a long paragraph explanation for the cause of the variable, why these event correlation and what type of correlation was presented. Overall, I feel as if I could do better on future competences similar to this one.

Communication and Representing: Use mathematical vocabulary and language to contribute to mathematical discussion 

For the competence, I feel if as if I showed a very good understanding on some part however, I feel as if I could of improved on some pieces of this competence. The parts of this competence I feel I really showed a good understanding in was having a easy to follow verbal and pictorial explanation for each of my correlations. As stated before my explanation for each correlation was very long and in great detail attempted to explain why the results meant causation or no causation. However, I feel as if I failed at giving a completely logical speech about why it means causation and/or correlation. This is due to me rushing having a graph with correlation without causation and one with correlation with causation. In conclusion, I hope I will be able to fully show this competence in my work in the future. 

Applying and Innovating: Contribute to care for self, others, community, and world through individuals or collaborative approaches 

I fully believe that I have fully met and went beyond in this competence. In the survey, even when my questions got personal I always gave the participant a choice in whether of not they wanted to participate or not. I made sure to not assume information about the participant before sending the survey out to the public. Additionally, even though I goofed off occasionally in class, I would say roughly 95% of class time was spent learning and working on the milestone. However, the one little part of this competence you can argue I failed on was that some of my question got a little personal on the medical history and personal life of the participant. In general, this competence I hope I can continue my growth in for the entire year.

Conclusion:

Overall, this project taught me quite a lot about just how different correlations is compared to causation and also how similar the two concepts are. Even though I’m not completely  happy with the final product of the project, I found the experience taught me a lot about work ethic and determination. Many times in the project I had to work longer than I usually do and had to keep on trying my best to make the perfect product. Overall, the main lesson I learned from this project, is that causation and correlation are two very different concepts and just because there is correlation doesn’t automatically mean causation.