Name: __________________________________________
MEL4E 12 MATHEMATICS FOR EVERYDAY LIFE
SAMPLING TECHNIQUES WORKSHEET
RECALL:
Population: is the whole group being studied. Data are usually
collected from a sample.
Sample: a small group from the population.
Sampling
Techniques:
Different
Sampling
Techniques:
Example 1: Which sampling technique would you use to gather the following
data?
a) The amount of snowfall:
b) The method of travel to work:
c) The ages of people attending CALC:
d) The number of people who run red lights:
Surveys must be simple and clear. The questions should be written
so that they don’t produce a BIASED response.
Biased:
Example 2: Discuss why the proposed sample would not be representative of
the population.
To collect data about the most popular fast-food restaurant in a city, ask people
arriving at one of the city’s fast-food restaurant.
Example 3: How can you improve the wording of the question below?
How would you rank Ms. Locke’s performance so far?
Good
Fair
Poor
No opinion
While conducting a survey a tally chart or frequency table is used
as a method to organize the data being collected.
Knowledge and
Understanding:
/8 Application:
/22 Thinking
and Inquiry:
/7 Communication:
Name: __________________________________________
MEL4E 12 MATHEMATICS FOR EVERYDAY LIFE
SAMPLING TECNIQUES WORKSHEET
Question One
(Knowledge/8)
Which sampling technique would you use to determine each of the following?
Explain your answer.
a. The need for traffic lights at an intersection.
b. The opinion of voters on a crime.
c. The popularity of a new TV series.
d. The concentration of a chemical in water.
Question Two
(Application/5)
Suppose you needed to determine the popularity of breakfast cereal among high
school students.
a. Choose a sample for the population and describe it.
/6
b. Choose a sampling technique and explain why it is suitable.
c. How would you record and display the data? Explain why you would use
this method.
Question Three
(Application/8)
Barney collected the following data. The survey question was “Which of these
shows is your favourite?”
Show
Jersey Shore
Tally
IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII
Frequency
20
Teen Mom
IIIII IIII
9
Gossip Girl
IIIII IIIII II
12
III
3
Vampire Diaries
a) Display this information as a graph.
b) If you were a TV producer, which show would you take off the air? Why?
c) If you were an advertiser, which show would you advertise with? Why?
Question Four
You are going to conduct a survey of your own. (Not really.)
(Communication/6)
a. Identify an issue or topic of interest to you, about which you would like to
collect some data.
b. Write a survey question for your issue or topic.
c. Explain why your survey question is suitable.
d. Describe a method for conducting the survey and explain why it is a
suitable method.
Question Five
(Application/9)
Let’s pretend that you conducted a survey using the class as the sample. Here is
the tally chart of your survey:
Favourite CALC Extra Curricular
Volleyball
Basketball
Hip Hop Collective
Karma Klub
Parenting Group
Tally
IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII II
IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIII
IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII III
III
IIIII IIIII IIIII II
Frequency
a. Complete the frequency portion of the table.
b. Construct a graph to display the results.
c. From your data and graph, what conclusions can you make regarding the
extra curricular activities at CALC?
d. Why would teachers and school administration be interested in the
findings of your survey?
Question Six
(Thinking/7)
Ms. Locke wants to know the distance that students have to travel to get to
CALC each morning. She decides to find out by recording the time that each
student enters her first period class each morning.
a. Is this a suitable sampling technique for determining the distance that
students travel to CALC each day? Explain.
b. What would be a better sampling technique?
c. Why would Ms. Locke be interested in this kind of information?