Identifying Sampling Techniques

Instruction: You are doing a study to determine the opinions of students at your school
regarding stem cell research. Identify the sampling technique you are using if you select
the samples listed. Discuss potential sources of bias (if any). Explain each item.

1. You divide the student population with respect to majors and randomly select and
question some students in each major.

Answer: In this study, I used stratified sampling because the students are divided into a
strata which is referring to their majors and a sample is selected from those each major.

2. You assign each student a number and generate random numbers.You then question
each student whose number is randomly selected.

Answer: In this study, I probably use simple random sampling where in each sample of
the same size has an equal chance of being selected. Just like in this study, each
student has an equal chance of being selected.
3. You select students who are in your biology class

Answer: In this study, I used Convenience sampling. Convenience sampling simply

includes the individuals who happen to be most accessible to the researcher. The down
side of this sampling method, it did not make any random selection from any class, just
chose the students who are most accessible in the research. It can’t produce
generalized results.