Statistical Investigations

Most popular flavour: ___

Least popular flavour: ___

Total ice creams sold: ___

How many more vanilla than strawberry? ___

What question will you investigate?

What data will you collect? Is it categorical or numerical?

How will you collect the data?

How will you display your results?

Write a question about a topic you are interested in:

Who will you ask? How many people?

What are the possible answers?

What type of graph will you use and why?

In which term were the most books read? ___

In which term were the fewest read? ___

How many books were read in total? ___

What was the difference between the best and worst terms? ___

Data: Red 8, Blue 12, Green 5, Yellow 7. Draw the bar graph below. Remember to label axes and give it a title.

Write a categorical survey question about food: ___

Write a numerical survey question about exercise: ___

Explain why 'Do you like sport?' is not a good survey question: ___

Which sport is most popular overall? ___

Which class prefers cricket more? ___

How many students in each class? Class A: ___ Class B: ___

What percentage of Class A chose soccer? ___

Name a digital tool for making graphs: ___

Why might a digital tool be better than drawing by hand?

What type of graph would you use to show how temperature changes over a week?

A bar graph starts at 50 instead of 0. How might this be misleading?

A graph has no labels on the axes. Why is this a problem?

What makes a graph easy to read and understand?

Question: ___

Data type (categorical or numerical): ___

Collection method: ___

Display method: ___

What might you expect to find? ___

Most popular colour: ___

Least popular colour: ___

Total students surveyed: ___

How many more chose blue than green? ___

What fraction chose red? ___

Best term for goals: ___

Worst term for goals: ___

Total goals for the year: ___

Average goals per term: ___

Favourite season: Summer 15, Autumn 8, Winter 5, Spring 12. Draw below. Remember labels and title.

Improve this question: 'Do you like maths?' Make it give categorical data with clear options:

Write a numerical survey question about screen time:

Explain why 'What do you think about school?' is not a good survey question:

Which sport increased in popularity from Year 4 to Year 5? ___

Which sport decreased? ___

Total students surveyed: Year 4: ___ Year 5: ___

What percentage of Year 5 chose swimming? (round to nearest whole number)

A bar graph uses pictures of different sizes instead of equal bars. How is this misleading?

A graph has a break in the y-axis (the scale jumps from 0 to 50). How might this be misleading?

Two graphs show the same data but look very different. What might cause this?

Name 3 different methods of collecting data: ___

What is a good sample size for a school survey? Why?

Why might an online survey give different results to a face-to-face survey?

Topic and question:

What data will you collect and how?

How will you organise and display the data?

What conclusions might you draw?

Most popular type: ___

Least popular type: ___

Total books counted: ___

What percentage chose fiction? ___

What would you expect in a different class? Explain.

Topic to collect: ___ (e.g., vehicles passing, birds in garden)

Draw a tally chart with 4 categories and your results:

What was the most common? ___

Survey: 20 students prefer sport. 10 prefer reading. 5 prefer gaming. What can you conclude?

Monthly temperatures: Jan 32°C, Jul 12°C. What can you conclude?

Your conclusion should answer the original question. What was the original question in the survey above?

Year 5A: Dogs 12, Cats 8, Fish 4, Birds 1. Year 5B: Dogs 6, Cats 10, Fish 3, Birds 6. Which class has more cat fans? ___

Which pet is equally popular across both classes? ___

Combine both classes: Dogs ___, Cats ___, Fish ___, Birds ___. Total: ___

What graph would you use to compare both classes? ___

List 2 digital tools you could use to create graphs (e.g., Excel): ___, ___

List 2 advantages of using a digital tool over drawing by hand:

What type of graph is easiest to make digitally? Why?

Question investigated: ___

How data was collected: ___

Results (in words): ___

Conclusion: ___

One improvement for next time: ___

Why might surveying only your friends give biased results?

A school surveys only Year 5 students about the canteen. Why might this not represent all students?

What would make a better sample for the school survey?

Total participants shown: ___

How many more swim than play tennis?

What percentage play soccer? (round to nearest %) ___

If the data is from 5 years ago, might things have changed? Why?

Scores: 7, 8, 7, 9, 8, 7, 10, 8, 7, 9, 7, 8. Score 7: ___ Score 8: ___ Score 9: ___ Score 10: ___

Mode: ___ Total scores: ___

What percentage scored 7? ___

Heights (cm): 122, 135, 128, 141, 119, 133, 127, 138, 145, 131. Group into: Under 125: ___ 125-134: ___ 135-144: ___ 145+: ___

In which group are most heights? ___

What would you call this type of data display? ___

Write a question about screen time that gives numerical data:

Write a question about food preferences that gives categorical data:

Write a question using a scale (1-5) about school enjoyment:

Where might you see statistics used in everyday life? Name 3 examples:

Why is it important to question statistics you see in the media?

What makes a statistical claim trustworthy?

Question to investigate: ___

Who will you survey? How many people? ___

How will you collect data? ___

How will you display your results? ___

What conclusion do you expect to find? ___

A graph shows sales from 95 to 100 but makes it look like they doubled. What technique was used? ___

How should a y-axis start to avoid misleading readers? ___

Why might a company use a misleading graph?

Monthly library visits: Jan=45, Feb=32, Mar=58, Apr=41, May=67, Jun=38. Total: ___

Average monthly visits: ___

In which month were visits highest? ___. Lowest? ___

If the library target is 50 visits/month, how many months met the target? ___

Class A: 72, 75, 78, 81, 83, 85, 88, 91. Class B: 65, 68, 72, 74, 76, 79, 82, 84. Create the plot:

Which class has higher scores overall? ___

List 2 advantages of using a spreadsheet to create graphs over drawing by hand:

What types of graphs can a spreadsheet create that would be hard to draw by hand?

What could go wrong if you rely on technology without understanding the data?

Compare: face-to-face survey vs online survey. Advantages of each: ___

Which would give more reliable data for 'How much screen time do you have daily?' — self-reported survey or device tracking? Why?

Apple: 45, Banana: 30, Mango: 25, Other: 20. What percentage prefer apple? ___

Represent this as fractions of the whole: Apple: ___ Banana: ___ Mango: ___

If this represents the whole school of 480 students, estimate total who prefer mango: ___

Data: Jan=12, Feb=18, Mar=15, Apr=22, May=19 books borrowed. Draw a bar graph:

Label the axes, title, and scale. Range: ___. Most popular month: ___

Claim: '9 out of 10 dentists recommend our toothpaste.' What questions would you ask to verify this? ___

Claim: 'Our school improved by 100%.' What might this mean? ___

Write a statistical claim that sounds impressive but might be misleading:

A graph's y-axis starts at 95 instead of 0. The bars look very different. Why is this misleading?

A graph shows data from only 3 data points. Why might this be misleading?

How would you redraw a misleading graph to be more honest?

Boys: 12 like summer, 8 like winter. Girls: 9 like summer, 11 like winter. Total who like summer: ___. Total who like winter: ___

More boys or girls prefer winter? ___. Total surveyed: ___

What percentage of all students prefer summer?

A headline says 'Screen time increased 200% during school holidays.' What might this actually mean?

What questions would a statistician ask before accepting this claim?

Explain why the word 'average' alone is not enough information:

Research question: What is the most popular lunch food among Year 5 students? Prediction: ___

Data collection method: ___. Sample size: ___. How will you record data? ___

What graph type will you use? ___. What conclusion do you expect? ___

Australia's population is about 26 million. About 20% are under 15 years old. How many is that? ___

If birth rates increase by 5% next year and the under-15 group grows proportionally, new count: ___

Why is census data (counting everyone) more reliable than sample data?