146notes-1 1-1 4
146notes-1 1-1 4
• Correctly use the following vocabulary: Statistics, population, census, sample, individual,
variable, qualitative variable, quantitative variable, discrete data, continuous data, mean,
proportion, parameter
• Identify examples of the terms above from problems given
• Give your own examples of the terms above
A BUNCH OF DEFINITIONS
___________________: The study of how to collect and interpret data about a group. We use statistics
to _________________ the groups and to ____________________________!
A sample?
Try This: Suppose I want to know what proportion (or percentage) of GRC 146 students this quarter
wear glasses. Identify the following:
a) Population:
b) Variable:
- The governor of WA state wants to know how Washington residents think we should combat
gun violence, so the governor can make good decisions about what laws to advocate for. What’s
one way the governor can find out this information?
_____________________________________________________________
- The chair of the GRC math division wants to know what times of day people prefer to take
classes, online or in person, and how many days a week, in order to figure out how make the
best schedule of math classes. What’s a way the chair can get this info?
_____________________________________________________________
- You want to know whether the new Ryan Reynolds movie is worth watching. What’s a way that
you can find out what lots of people think of it?
_____________________________________________________________
- A person interested in buying a particular car wants to know how often cars like it are stolen.
What’s a place they can find the answer to that information?
_____________________________________________________________
- Try this: What’s an example of a statistical question you might want to know the answer to in
order to make a decision?
Ex: We want to know the proportion of all 146 students this quarter who wear glasses to class.
3
a) How many students are wearing glasses in our class today? ____________________
b) How many students are in class today? (This is our sample size)
__________________________
c) What proportion of students are wearing glasses in our class today? 𝑠 =
_________________. We can also write this as a percent:
This number is our _________________________________
d) Is this the same as our population parameter? __________________
e) What does this tell us about our population parameter? Does it tell us anything?
Try This: Print-O-Matic would like to estimate the mean salary of their 100 employees. To accomplish
this, they collect the salary of 19 employees. Identify each of the following for this situation.
Variable: _________________________________________________
Population: _________________________________________________
Sample: _________________________________________________
Parameter: _________________________________________________
Qualitative (or categorical) variable: When the data you collect about an individual is:
Our GRC majors and glasses examples both have which kind of variable? ____________________
Ex #3: I want to know how many pets each 146 student has.
Try This: Suppose our population is people who went to the emergency room at Auburn MultiCare in
2023.
Ex #4:
Ex #5:
5
a) Discrete data
b) Continuous data
• Explain, compare, and contrast the following sample methods: simple random sample, stratified
sample, cluster sample, systematic sample, convenience sample
• Identify which sampling method has been used in a given problem
a)
b)
SAMPLING METHODS
1. ____________________________________ of size n: a sample that is selected from a
population in such a way that every member of population has an equal chance of being
selected. Also, every possible sample of size n is equally likely to be selected.
Ex #6:
Non-examples:
Ex #7:
NOTE: It’s really easy to get stratified and cluster sampling confused! Remember: in stratified
sampling, we poll ____________ of the individuals in ___________ of the groups, and in cluster
sampling, we poll ____________ of the individuals in ___________ of the groups.
Question: If we surveyed ALL the individuals in a population, what would that method be called?
7
• Explain the following terms, and identify them in a given scenario: lurking or confounding
variable, overgeneralization, cause and effect, sampling error, nonsampling error, surveys,
leading questions, non-response, voluntary response
• Identify potential statistical problems or biases in a scenario
Scenario 1: Researchers have found that people who drink alcohol are more likely to get lung cancer
than people who don’t drink. Does this mean alcohol causes lung cancer?
8
When we are trying to find a relationship between two variables, but there are other factors we’re not
considering that affect our results, these factors are called ___________________________________ or
___________________________________. In this case, both smoking and genetic predisposition are
confounding variables.
IN GENERAL:
PLEASE NOTE: If you think a study has a ________________________, you must be able to
_______________ it. You can’t just say, “Well, maybe it has one”!!
Scenario 2: A study randomly divides a group of women between the ages of 25-30 into two groups. The
researchers have one group take a daily 15-minute walk, and the second group does not take a walk.
After two months, the researchers find the group of women that took a walk has improved blood
pressure, and the group that didn’t have the same blood pressure as before. Headline of newspaper
article on the study: “Walking 15 minutes daily improves your blood pressure, study finds.” What’s
wrong with this headline?
9
If we take the results from a narrow group of individuals (like ______________________) and apply
them to a much broader group of people (like ______________________), this is called
_______________________. NOTE: This is different from generalizing from a small NUMBER to a large
NUMBER.
IN GENERAL:
Scenario 3: Two political polling companies conducted surveys to determine support for a new school
levy.
Poll #1: “Do you support a new levy to help fund art and science classes in our district?” 67% said yes.
Poll #2: “Do you support a new school levy that increases your property taxes?” 45% said yes.
Assume the two polls were taken using the same sampling methods. Why are these responses so
different?
When a survey is phrased with a leading question, this can cause _______________________.
Scenario 4: In order to determine whether Tacoma residents support a downtown revitalization project,
a survey was conducted. It was determined that 200 people would be interviewed, where 50 were
downtown business owners, 50 were people who worked in a downtown office, and 100 were people
shopping downtown. A surveyor stood on a corner in downtown and surveyed people until he had
10
surveyed 50 downtown business owners, 50 downtown workers and 100 downtown shoppers. 74%
were in favor of the project, 18 % were opposed, and 8% had no opinion.
Scenario 5: I want to know if I should change the time of my office hour from 3pm to 9am. I send out a
survey to my class of 33 students. 5 students respond, and 4 of them say they want me to change the
time. Does this mean I should change the time of my office hour?
When we only get a response from a very small percentage of our sample, we call this
______________________________.
Scenario 6: In his newsletter, the governor asks WA state residents to fill out a poll telling him whether
he should support building a new commercial airport near Enumclaw. 73% of respondents said he
should not support the airport. Do these results give the governor a good picture of how WA residents
feel about the airport proposal?