Question: A science teacher suggests that the mean scores on a science assessment test for nine-year-old boys and girls are equal. If the mean score for 13 randomly selected boys is 232.2 with a standard deviation of 1.3 and the mean score for 15 randomly selected girls is 230 with a standard deviation of 1.4, can you reject the teacher's suggestion? Assume the populations are normally dis­tributed and the variances are equal. Use a = 0.01.

(a) Write Ho and Ha:

(b) Determine whether the hypothesis test is a one-tailed or a two-tailed test and whether to use a z-test or a t-test:

(c) Find the critical value and identify the rejection region.

(d) Calculate the test statistic.

(e) Decide whether to reject or fail to reject the null hypothesis. Interpret the decision in the context of the original claim.