What Does Data Gathering Mean?
A large part of working with statistics is planning how to obtain the information you need, and then executing that plan in order to get it. For example, imagine you need to figure out the favorite color of everyone in your class, so you can find out which color is the most popular among your classmates. You’ll have to get information from everyone in your class.
This is an example of a survey. To complete the survey, you’ll have to ask each student what his or her favorite color is. You’ll need to write the answers down, for example in a frequency table where you use tally marks.
Think About This
Imagine that instead of asking, you decide to guess everyone’s favorite color. Do you think you would manage to guess them all correctly?
Probably not! Therefore you have to ask all of your fellow students. Think about what would happen if you were asked to conduct this survey, but you just made up the colors instead of asking. Whose favorite color do you think would’ve come out on top?
This is an example of how statistics can be misused. It is difficult to not be affected by things you already know and like.
Think About This
Imagine you perform the same experiment on a different class. Do you believe their answers would be the exact same as in your class? What about the whole school?
This is a difficult question, and you’ll just have to figure it out by conducting those surveys to find out the answer!
