The Impact of Location

[Warmup]

Read these excerpt from a study on seat location. 

 "While a number of studies have looked at the effect of seat location 

on students, the results are often not clear, and few, if any, have studied the effects of with randomly assigned seats. In this study, we report on a course in which we randomly assigned students to particular seat locations at the beginning of the semester. 

Seat location during the first half of the semester had a noticeable impact on student success in the course, particularly in the top and bottom parts of the grade distribution. Students sitting in the back of the room for the first half of the term were nearly six times as likely to receive an F as as students who started in the front of the room. Students were also more likely to receive an A in the front of the class.

These effects were in spite of many unusual efforts to engage students at the back of the class and a front-to-back reversal of seat location halfway through the term."

1. What did the study find?
2. What do you think about these findings?
3. We are going to have a new seating chart on Monday. Where would you prefer to seat (no guarantees that you'll get what you request but the better you explain your reasoning the better chance you'll get dibs)?