STATISTICS (SAMPLING TECHNIQUES) When conducting a survey, it is important to choose the right questions to ask and to select the appropriate group to survey. Therefore, before a survey is designed, the target group for the survey must be identified. In many situations, it is not practical or possible to survey an entire population, so a representative sample of the population is selected. population: all individuals or items that belong to a group being studied (the target group) ex. sample: a group of individuals or items that are representative of the population from which they are taken ex. bias: a survey contains bias if it does not reflect the population Causes: 1. 2. 3. Example 1: Barney wants to know which band Ontario high school students think is best. Barney’s friend Fred goes to a different school, so they each survey students at their own school. Barney uses the completed surveys from both schools to draw conclusions. a) Identify the population and sample. b) Is the sample representative of the population? If not, suggest how the sample could be improved. Unit 8 Lesson 1 Page 1 of 2 SAMPLING TECHNIQUES Simple Random Sample Stratified Random Sample Voluntary-Response Sample Cluster Sample Convenience Sample Systematic Sample Example 2: each member of the population has an equal chance of being selected Ex. the population is divided into subgroups and a random sample is selected from each subgroup in proportion to its size in the population Ex. the sample contains members of the population who have chosen to respond to the survey Ex. the population is divided into clusters and every member of certain clusters respond Ex. the sample contains those members of the population from which data is most easily collected Ex. every nth member of the population is selected Ex. Determine the best sampling technique for each survey. Identify any problems with using the sampling technique. a) The school newspaper wants to determine which presidential candidate in the upcoming student council elections is supported by the majority of students. b) A light bulb manufacturer wants to determine the lifespan of a certain type of light bulb, in hours. c) The PTA wants to determine the average number of hours per week that students spend on homework. d) The producers of “ROCK IDOL” want to determine who should be the next rock idol. HOMEWORK: p.106–108 #1–4 , 7–9 Unit 8 Lesson 1 Page 2 of 2