Give an example of discrete data b continuous data You want to choose a sample of 3 boys and 3 girls from your lass Describe three different ways to do this. a Write one advantage of a large sample size. b Write one disadvantage of a large sample size. You want to find the number of brothers and sisters of a group of children Describe two different ways you could collect this data ¢ categorical data In the United States of America, elections are held every two years to choose members for the House of Representatives. This is one of the ‘groups of people who run the country, Each American state chooses representatives. The number they can choose depends on how many people live in that state, The more people live in a state, the more representatives they can choose. Itis therefore very important to keep accurate records of the number of people living in each state. To maintain accurate records, a census is held every 10 years. A census is a way of collecting data. It is a questionnaire that mist be filled in by every houschold in the USA. Scanned with CamScanner6 Collecting data ‘There was a census in 2010. The questionnaire had only 10 questions, which people were able to answer in about 10 minutes. The results of the 2010 census showed that there were 308745 538 people living inthe USA, ‘There are 435 representatives in the House of Representatives. ‘This means there is one representative for roughly every 710000 people in the USA. ‘The map shows the number of representatives in each state of the USA. ‘You can see that California has the largest number of representatives, even though it is not the largest state by area. This is because more people lve in California than in any other state in the USA, MA(II) RI(4) cr), NJ(I4) DEQ) MD (10)6 Coll ing > 6.1 Data collection To answer questions in statistics, you must collect data. First, you decide which data you need to collect. You need to know if it is discrete, continuous or categorical. Next, you must decide how to collect the data. If you need to question people, you could use a questionnaire that they fill in by themselves. Alternatively, you could interview them and write down the answers. Sometimes, you need to make observations, For example, you might record times or count vehicles. In this case, you need a sheet to record your observations. ‘You may not be able to interview or give a questionnaire to everyone In this case, you need to take a sample. You must think carefully about the best way to choose your sample, Whenever you collect data, you need to choose a method and explain why you think that method is the best one to use, ene The head teacher wants answers to the following questions: ‘© Are learners happy with the length of lessons? Should they be longer or shorter? + Are learners happy with the length of their lunch break? Your task isto investigate these questions using a sample of the learners in the school. a What data will you collect? b How will you choose your sample? ¢ How will you collect the data? Giye reasons for your answers. Scanned with CamScanner6.1 Data collection ‘Answer a You will need to collect data for: opinion about length of lessons; opinion about whether lessons should be longer, shorter or the same; opinions about length of lunch break. There could be differences of opinion between boys and girls and between younger and older learners $0 you also need to collect data about the age and gender of the learners sampled. If there are equal numbers of boys and girls in the school, you could choose 2 girls and 2 boys from each tutor group. Use the register and choose two names at random (for example, in one tutor group, you might speak to the third and sixth girl and the third and sixth boy in the register). A random sample is more likely to be representative. Individual interviews would be best because this will allow you to get an answer from everyone, You could also talk to a group of students together so they can discuss their ideas. However, this might take too long or be inconvenient, in which case you could use a questionnaire Exercise 6.1 4 How would you collect data to answer these questions? State the type of data each time. ‘When a drawing pin is dropped, is it more likely to land point up or point down? How many people visit a particular shop before 09:00? How many brothers and sisters do the members of your class have? How long do learners spend doing homework each night? What is the average number of words in a sentence in a book? How long do learners take to get to school each day? ‘Ahmad uses a gym. He asks these questions. © Do people visit this gym every week? © Do people come at a particular time of day? © Istherea difference between the habits of men and women? He interviews a sample of people at the gym. a What data does he need to collect? b What type of data is it? ¢ Hereis his data collection sheet. What is wrong with this data collection sheet?ting Design a better data collection sheet. @ He asks the first people who come into the gym each morning fora week, Why is this not a good way to choose his sample? Describe a better way. ‘A cinema manager asks these questions. How often do people visit the cinema? Do younger people visit more often t What type of film do people like? What data is required? Describe two ways to collet the data, ‘The manager decides to give a questionnaire to a sample of ‘customers. She gives it to all the customers on one night. Why is this not a good way to choose the sample? d_ Describe how the manager can get a representative sample. Compare your answer to part d with another group's answer. Can you improve your answer? Can you improve theirs? 4 Xavier has a simple puzzle for children. He asks these questions: How long does it take to solve the puzzle? Can girls solve it more quickly than boys? Can older children solve it more quickly than younger ones? What data must Xavier collect? What type of data is it? Xavier gives the puzzle to a sample of children Design a data collection sheet for Xavier Y You are going to plan and trial the collection of data from leamers in your school. a Think of three questions you can ask about aspects of school life. b What data do you need to answer these questions? ¢ Decide how you will collect the data you need. You could use a questionnaire or a data collection sheet. d_ Test your data collection method on a few learners. Does it work well? Can you improve it? e Youneed to choose a sample of learners. How can you do this? Whats the best way and why? Compare your answers with those of another group. Can you see a way to improve your work or their work?pee sofia surveys Cars using a busy road. She wants to answer these questions What percentage of drivers are male? ‘What percentage of cars carry only one person? What is the average number of people in a car? What data does Sofia need to collect? What type of data is this? Design a data collection sheet for Sofia ‘Anders is comparing two books, X and Y. He thinks book X is harder to read than book Y. a What things make a book hard or easy to read? ‘What statistical questions can you ask to compare how easy itis to read each book? ‘What data can you collect to answer your questions? How would you collect data to answer your questions? Choose a book and use it to test your data collection method. Does it give you the data you need? Can you improve your method? Compare your answers with those of another group. If you have chosen different approaches, which do you prefer?Stamos > 6.2 Sampling ‘The word ‘population’ usually refers to the people living in a town or country, In a statistical investigation, however, it means the people you are interested in. [If you are investigating your class, the population means the people in your class If you are investigating your school, the population is all the learners in your school. Often you cannot question the whole population. In this case, you need to choose a sample. There are different ways to choose a sample. In any investigation you need to decide on the best way to choose your sample. Sometimes, your investigation is not about people. For example, you ‘might be investigating the traffic going past your school. If you collect data about some of the vehicles you are still taking a sample. In this case, the population is all the vehicles passing your school. Scanned with CamScanner6.2 Sampling A palace has visitors every day. You are doing a survey to find out what visitors think of the visit. You want to talk to a sample of 100 people. The survey must be done on one day a What factors might affect a person’s opinion of the visit? b Describe how you can choose a sample. Take account of the factors you identified in part a. Give any advantages and disadvantages of your method. Answer 5 and gender are two factors. b Choose about five different age bands. Choose people arriving and ask them what age band they are in as one of the questions. Make sure you speak to an equal number of men and women. Select people at several different times during the day. An advantage is that this includes a range of people. If you spoke to mostly people or mostly men, for example, the answers would not represent all th A disadvantage is that this method will take longer than simply asking t people you see. You might need to speak to more than 100 people to mal cover ail the different Exercise 6.2 4 A manager wants to find customers! o The manager Scanned with CamScanner2. Work with a partner to answer this question, You are going to find the lengths of the words in a novel. Choose a book to use. You want a sample of 50 words. ‘a Describe three different ways of choosing a sample of 50 words. b Use one of your methods from part a to sample 50 words from your chosen novel. Use a tally chart to record the number of letters in each word. ¢ Did your sampling method give you a sample that was representative of the whole book? Could you improve your method? d__Tiyone of your other sampling methods. e Compare your first method with your second method. Can you improve the second method? ‘Was one better than the other? Zalika is investigating the number of people in each car on a busy road. She predicts that most cars will contain only one person, the driver. Zalika says, ‘Iwill tart at 08:00 and observe 200 cars. a Write one advantage and one disadvantage of Zalika’s method. b Describe a better way to take a sample of 200 cars. Explain why your method is better than Zalika’s You have been asked to carry out an investigation, You want to find out if learners would like to change the school homework policy. You will choose a sample of about 50 learners. Explain how you will choose your sample. Explain why you have chosen this method. ‘Arun and Sofia carry out a survey of parents about school homework. One conjecture is that parents want more homework. To test this, each asks this question of a sample of 50 parents: of homework your child gets too little / about right / Scanned with CamScannereee 8 eee This chart shows the results: rt a DoArun’s results support this conjecture? 3°] Give a reason for your answer z ra Arun b Do Sofia’s results support this conjecture? Give a reason for your answer in) a ha hc Bistalatel tobe ¢ Give a possible reason why the results of t a 9 the two surveys are different. 9 Too About rt 6 A llarge factory has a restaurant where employes fe Leight much o for lunch. Arun is investigating ways to improve the restaurant. a Give one disadvantage of Arun's method. b Describe a better way of doing the survey, Here is a conjecture about the cars using a particular road: The modal number of people in a car is 1 Ill give a ‘questionnaire to the first 50 workers visiting the restaurant this lunchtime. Marcus, Zara and Sofia each do a survey of cars on the road. They count the number of people in each car, including the driver Each person does the survey for 15 minutes They do their surveys at different times of day The mode is the number with the The results are in the graph on the right hig st frequency. a Do the results of each su b Describe any similari the surveys, this conjecture? Scanned with CamScanner6 Collecting data Check your progress You want to answer these questions: © Are girls or boys better © Does height make a difference? ‘What data could you collect to answer these questions? ‘What type of data is it? How would you collect the data you need? Explain how you could select a sample from your school. Justify your choice. throwing a ball through a basketball hoop? Scanned with CamScanner