Learning Goals
Deepen your understanding and form connections within these skills:
- Identify sampling bias.
- Describe a random and representative sample from a population.
In What to Know [2B], you saw four methods for sampling data from a population. In this activity be invited to think more deeply about the relationship between a population and a sample. You will determine a population and sample based on a research question, and identify potential issues with sampling bias. You’ll also see that selecting a representative sample from a population is important for generalizing conclusions on the population.
Would You Like a Sample?
A student at a local high school in Florida is interested in doing a research project about student diversity in the three public high schools in her county. She wants to investigate the proportion of public high school students in her county who self-identify as American Indian/Alaskan native, Asian, Black, Hispanic, White, or Multi-ethnic.
What do you think the population of interest is? Turn to a partner to share your answer then discuss together the options available if the student wants to take a representative sample from this population to answer Question 1.
question 1
What is the population of interest? What should she consider if she wants to take a representative sample from this population?
Guidance
[Intro: What did you come up with as a good method for her to take a representative sample? In What to Know [2B], the preview for this activity, four sampling methods were given. Did you chose one of those? In this activity, you’ll learn to identify sampling bias and understand how to describe a random and representative sample from a population. Work in pairs to answer Question 2 – 5 to identify sources of bias in the given scenarios. ]
