Practice Data Collection in Statistics
Use these practice problems to test your method after reviewing the concept explanation and worked examples.
Quick Recap
The systematic process of gathering information (data) to answer questions or learn about a topic.
Imagine you want to know your class's favorite ice cream flavor. You can't just guess - you need to actually ask everyone and write down their answers. That's data collection! It's like being a detective who gathers clues before solving a mystery.
Example 1
easyA student wants to find out the favourite sport of students in her school. She decides to ask every student in her class. Is this a good method of data collection? Explain.
Example 2
easyClassify each data-collection method as a survey, an observation, or an experiment: (a) Recording how many cars pass a junction each hour. (b) Asking 50 people their favourite colour. (c) Giving one group of plants fertiliser and another group none, then measuring growth.
Example 3
easyA town council wants to know whether residents support building a new park. They place a survey form in the local library. Give one reason this method might produce biased results and suggest an improvement.
Example 4
easyA 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.