D1.2 Collect qualitative data and discrete and continuous quantitative data to answer questions of interest, and organize the sets of data as appropriate, including using percentages.
Activity 1: Data Types
Introduce students to the following questions of interest.
- How many people attended the Music on the Run concert?
- What is the average length of time it takes to run 5 km?
- Are children's movies longer than other types of movies?
- How much does a cantaloupe weigh?
- What colour of sweater are most students wearing today?
- How many siblings do the students at Charlemagne School have?
- What is the favourite movie genre of teenagers?
- What is the average speed of the racing cars?
- How many different types of musical instruments are there in each school of the School Board?
- What are the favourite ice cream flavours of the students at Les Épinettes School?
Ask students to choose a question of interest from those suggested above. Ask them questions such as the following:
- What type of inquiry is most appropriate for your question of interest? Why?
- What kind of data will you need to collect? How do you know?
- Do you think the data should be collected from a primary or secondary source? Why? If you are going to use secondary data, where will it come from? Is this source reliable?
- What is the target population and what will be your sample size? How did you determine this?
- How will you go about getting the data you need?
- How will you record the results of your inquiry?
- What sampling technique will be most appropriate to answer your question of interest? How do you know?
Activity 2: Data Types and Relative Frequency Table
Present students with the following scenario:
An investor is looking to determine the approximate amount of money that the residents of Eat-All Village spend each week on groceries. The population currently has to shop in a nearby town. This data will help the investor make a more informed decision about whether or not it would be profitable to open a grocery store in this village.
Amount Spent Each Week on Groceries
| Amount ($) | Frequency |
|---|---|
| Less than $100 | 31 |
| $100 to $200 | 228 |
| $200 to $300 | 197 |
| $300 or more | 58 |
- What kind of data did the investor collect? How might the investor have collected this data?
- Organize the data into a relative frequency table.
- Determine how you could use the relative frequencies expressed as percentages, to create the sections in a circle graph. Construct the graph.