Random Samples

A U.S. senator from Pennsylvania wants to find out the opinion of the voters in his state on issues concerning education. The office of the senator passes out surveys on ten street corners in the five major cities in the state of Pennsylvania. Is this random?

• yes

• no

Biased or Random?

Tyler wants to find out what the most popular pet in all of Menifee Elementary so he puts every student's name into a bucket and polls 30 students.

• Not Random

• Random

Leslie surveyed the 9 youngest students in the elementary school. Is this sample of the students in the school likely to be representative of all the students in the school?

• yes

• no

A ______ is the entire set of objects from which data might be collected

• sample

• population

• numerical summary

• statistic

A _______ is a subset of the population.

• population

• numerical value

• statistic

• sample

True or False: All samples lead to a good prediction about the entire population.

• True

• False

A student wants to know which type of of pizza high school students perfer. Which of the following options is a good, representative sample of the population?

• Asking all the 10th graders in the school

• Asking 20 students from each grade level

• Asking the school principal which type of pizza he perfers

• Asking the students who walk to school

A beverage company wants to see if people in the United States like their new logo. Which of the following represents the population?

• 2,000 people ages 5-13

• A selection of logo artists

• A selection of shoppers from different states

• all the people in the United States

A beverage company wants to see if people in the United States like their new logo. Which of the following represents the best choice for a sample?

• a collection of shoppers from different states

• all the people living in the United States

• a selection of logo artists

• 2,000 children from ages 5-13

Ana wants to know the average student’s opinion of the tardy policy at her school. Which group of students should she survey in order to achieve the most accurate results?

• 30 of her friends

• 30 randomly selected students in the school

• 30 students who are often tardy

• 30 students who are not often tardy