Data Collection Statistics Example 4

Follow the full solution, then compare it with the other examples linked below.

Example 4

easy
A school wants to know how many students ride the bus. They ask the first 20 students who enter through the front door on Monday morning. Identify one source of bias and suggest a better method.

Solution

  1. 1
    Step 1: Students entering one door on one morning may not represent the whole school, so the sample is biased.
  2. 2
    Step 2: A better method is to survey a random sample from the full student list or ask every homeroom.

Answer

The sample is biased because it only includes students entering one door at one time. A random sample from the whole school would be better.
Good data collection should represent the full population. Limiting responses to one entrance and one time of day can miss important groups and distort the results.

About Data Collection

The systematic process of gathering information to answer questions, using methods like surveys, experiments, or observations.

Learn more about Data Collection →

More Data Collection Examples

Example 1 easy

A student wants to find out the favourite sport of students in her school. She decides to ask every

Example 2 easy

Classify each data-collection method as a survey, an observation, or an experiment: (a) Recording ho

Example 3 easy

A town council wants to know whether residents support building a new park. They place a survey form

← All Data Collection Examples Data Collection Concept