|
1. |
Describe
this activity as a scenario.
- Newspapers often report surveys.
Do you know how they conduct the survey? How do
they select the individuals? How well does the
survey represent the target population? The
technique they use to select individuals is random
selection. Do you think you can best random
select by your own choice? Here is a challenge
for you. You will enter a contest to select ten boxes that you think represent the population
the best and will give you the best estimate of the
average number of squares per box.
|
|
2. |
Decide to
have your class:
- Participate in selecting your own
box activity (pass code is required). Go to step
3
-OR-
- Use the data collected by other
classes (no pass code required). Go to step 4.
|
|
3. |
Engage
students in the data measurement and data collection
stage.
- Challenge students to beat the
random sampling using their own subjective selection.
- Direct students to the "Add Data"
page for this activity.
-Go to Data Entry, select Activity Sampling
-Click on "Add Data"
-Provide the pass code for students to make their
selection of ten boxes.
|
|
4. |
Direct
students to the Data Download
page.
- If you are on the activity sampling
main page, click on Select Data to download the
data
-OR-
- Click on Data Download,
select Activity Sampling, then click on Select Data
The data stored form this activity
include:
- SAVG: The average number of squares
from students' ten boxes.
- SSTD: The standard deviation of the
number of squares form the students' ten boxes.
- RAVG: The average number of squares
from random sampling made by computer.
- RSTD: The standard deviation of the
number of squares from the ten randomly selected
boxes.
|
|
5. |
Direct
students to analyze the data.
You should have chosen what statistical tool your class
will be using for analyzing the data.
• You may use the software at your local computer lab.
• You may use the online software, "Crunch_It"
at http://www.statcrunch.com/.
For first time
users you must sign on to the
site. Please
stress that students
need
to remember their
own ID and
password. Direct
students to input
the
data and analyze
the data. Be more
focused
on what
tools are to be used
for
analyzing this
distance data based on
the purpose of
this activity.
Suggested Questions for Classroom Activities
|
|
6. |
Facilitate
the discussion of the results.
This activity demonstrates the importance of random
sampling. The discussion of the results may
include: |
| |
- How random sampling is conducted
and why it works better than subjective sampling.
- Why the voluntary sampling such as
those shown on TV, is not good.
- The importance of representation of
a population using sampling.
- How to determine target population
and why a "good" sample is important.
- The effect of sample size can be
discussed in terms of sample representation without
discussing sampling distribution.
|
|
7. |
Assessment:
Online Self-Test for Students
Suggested Questions for Classroom Activities
Suggested Questions for Homework and Projects |
