The Improving Mathematics Education in Schools (TIMES) Project STATISTICS AND

PROBABILITY Module 6
DATA INVESTIGATION
AND INTERPRETATION
A guide for teachers - Year 8 June 2011

8
YEAR
Data Investigation and Interpretation

(Statistics and Probability: Module 6)

For teachers of Primary and Secondary Mathematics

510

Cover design, Layout design and Typesetting by Claire Ho

The Improving Mathematics Education in Schools (TIMES)

Project 2009‑2011 was funded by the Australian Government
Department of Education, Employment and Workplace
Relations.

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not
necessarily represent the views of the Australian Government
Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

© The University of Melbourne on behalf of the International

Centre of Excellence for Education in Mathematics (ICE‑EM),
the education division of the Australian Mathematical Sciences
Institute (AMSI), 2010 (except where otherwise indicated). This
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The Improving Mathematics Education in Schools (TIMES) Project STATISTICS AND
PROBABILITY Module 6 
DATA INVESTIGATION
AND INTERPRETATION
A guide for teachers - Year 8 June 2011

Helen MacGillivray

8
YEAR
{4} A guide for teachers

DATA INVESTIGATION
AND INTERPRETATION

ASSUMED BACKGROUND FROM F-7

It is assumed that in Years F-7, students have had many learning experiences involving
choosing and identifying questions or issues from everyday life and familiar situations,
planning statistical investigations and collecting or accessing data. It is assumed that
students are now familiar with categorical, count and continuous data, have had learning
experiences in recording, classifying and exploring individual datasets of each type, and
have seen and used tables, picture graphs and column graphs for categorical data and
count data with a small number of different counts treated as categories, and dotplots and
stem-and-leaf plots for continuous and count data. It is assumed that students are familiar
with the use of frequencies and relative frequencies of categories (for categorical data) or
of counts (for count data) or of intervals of values (for continuous data). It is assumed that
students have used and interpreted averages (or means) and medians of quantitative (that
is, count or continuous) data. It is assumed that students have become familiar with the
concepts of statistical variables and of subjects of a data investigation. It is assumed that
the focus in exploration and comment on continuous and count data has been on each
set of data by itself, but that in Year 6, students have become familiar with considering
more than one set of categorical data on the same subjects. In doing so, they have
understood that they were investigating data on pairs of categorical variables.

MOTIVATION
Statistics and statistical thinking have become increasingly important in a society that
relies more and more on information and calls for evidence. Hence the need to develop
statistical skills and thinking across all levels of education has grown and is of core
importance in a century which will place even greater demands on society for statistical
capabilities throughout industry, government and education.

A natural environment for learning statistical thinking is through experiencing the process
of carrying out real statistical data investigations from first thoughts, through planning,
collecting and exploring data, to reporting on its features. Statistical data investigations
also provide ideal conditions for active learning, hands-on experience and problem-
solving. No matter how it is described, the elements of the statistical data investigation
process are accessible across all educational levels.
 The Improving Mathematics Education in Schools (TIMES) Project {5}

Real statistical data investigations involve a number of components: formulating a problem

so that it can be tackled statistically; planning, collecting, organising and validating data;
exploring and analysing data; and interpreting and presenting information from data in
context. No matter how the statistical data investigative process is described, its elements
provide a practical framework for demonstrating and learning statistical thinking, as well as
experiential learning in which statistical concepts, techniques and tools can be gradually
introduced, developed, applied and extended as students move through schooling.

CONTENT
In this module, in the context of statistical data investigations, we build on the content
of Years F-7 to focus more closely on whether we can use data to comment on a more
general situation or population. We can do this if our data are, or can be considered
to have been, a random set of observations obtained in circumstances that are
representative of the general situation or population. Because this is a mouthful, we will
here call this the random representativeness of data. So in this module we consider more
about how data are collected, how to obtain random representative data and of what we
can take our data to be representative. We compare the nature of censuses, surveys and
observational investigations. Datasets that are not census data are often called samples of
data, so this module includes some introductory notions of sampling to obtain random
representative data.

The general meaning of the word sample is a portion, piece, or segment that is
representative of a whole. In statistics, a sample of data, or a data sample, is a set of
observations such that more, sometimes infinitely more, observations could have
been taken. We want our sample of data to be randomly representative of some
general situation or population so that we can use the data to obtain information about
the general situation or population. A particular dataset might be considered to be
representative for some questions or issues, but not for others, and these considerations
will also be explored.

For example, if we wanted information about people’s opinions on water recycling, in

some locality, then the ideal way of obtaining a sample of opinions that can be used to
comment on the whole locality, is by taking a randomly chosen set of people from all of
those in the locality and asking their opinions. However, even with complete records and
resources available, this has many difficulties as we will see in this module. How about
surveying people in a shopping centre on weekend days in that locality? This might be
{6} A guide for teachers

considered reasonably representative of people in that locality with respect to opinions

on water recycling, but if we wanted information on people’s preferred time for shopping,
then such a method would clearly be highly non-representative of people in that locality.

But even if weekend shoppers in a shopping centre in the locality can be considered
representative of that locality, we also need to choose people randomly because only a
randomly chosen group of people are truly representative of everyone in the locality.

In this module we use the term representative data to mean a set of observations
obtained randomly in circumstances that are representative of a more general situation or
larger population with respect to the issues of interest.

We build on the notions of variation introduced across Years F-7 to explore this concept
more closely, including sources of variation within and across datasets.

In Year 7, we have seen the concept, use and interpretation of the average of a set of
quantitative data; the average is often called the sample mean. We have seen the concept,
use and interpretation of relative frequency of a category for categorical data; this is
often called the sample proportion (for that category). In this module, consideration of
variation across datasets leads us to explore the variation of sample means and of sample
proportions across datasets collected or obtained under the same or similar circumstances.

This module uses a number of examples involving the different types of data to explore
representativeness of data, variation across and within datasets, and the variation
of quantities calculated from data, such as averages or sample means, and sample
proportions. Such quantities are called summary statistics. The examples and new content
are developed within the statistical data investigation process through the following:

• considering initial questions that motivate an investigation;

• identifying issues and planning;
• collecting, handling and checking data;
• exploring and interpreting data in context.

Such phases lend themselves to representation on a diagram, as follows.

Initial Issues and

questions planning

Collecting,
Exploring, handling,
interpreting checking data
data in context
 The Improving Mathematics Education in Schools (TIMES) Project {7}

The examples consider situations familiar and accessible to Year 8 students and in reports
in digital media and elsewhere, and build on the situations considered in F-7. The module
uses concepts, graphs and other data summaries considered in F-7, but focuses on
the planning and collecting components of the statistical data investigation process to
develop understanding of concepts of representativeness, sources of variation, sampling
and variation due to sampling.

REVISION OF TYPES OF DATA AND STATISTICAL VARIABLES

In F-7, we have considered different types of data, and hence different types of statistical
variables. When we collect or observe data, the ‘what’ we are going to observe is called a
statistical variable. You can think of a statistical variable as a description of an entity that
is being observed or is going to be observed. Hence when we consider types of data, we
are also considering types of variables. There are three main types of statistical variables:
continuous, count and categorical.

Some examples of continuous variables are:

• time in minutes to get to school

• length in cm of right feet of Year 7 girls
• age in years
• amount of weekly allowance

All continuous data need units and observations are recorded in the desired units.

Continuous variables can take any values in intervals. For example, if someone says their
height is 149 cm, they mean their height lies between 148.5 cm and 149.5 cm. If they say
their height is 148.5 cm, they mean their height is in between 148.45 cm and 148.55 cm. If
someone reports their age as 12 years, they (usually) mean their age is in between 12 and
13 years. Note the convention with age is that the interval is from our age in whole number
of years up to the next whole number of years. If someone says their age is 12 and a half,
is there are a standard way of interpreting the interval they are referring to? Do they mean
12.5 years up to 13 years, or do they mean some interval around 12.5 with the actual interval
not completely specified? Notice that our specification of intervals in talking about age is
usually not as definite as when we quote someone’s height, but the principle is the same –
observations of continuous variables are never exact and correspond to little intervals.

A count variable counts the number of items or people in a specified time or place or
occasion or group. Each observation in a set of count data is a count value. Count data
occur in considering situations such as:

• the number of children in a family

• the number of people arriving at a central city railway station in a 5 minute interval
during peak time

• attendance at football matches

{8} A guide for teachers

• the number of hits on an internet site per week

We can see that the first example above of a count variable contrasts with the other
examples, in which counts will tend to take many different values – that is, in data on the
variables in bullet points 2, 3 and 4 above, repetitions of values of observations are not
likely. Also, the sizes of the observations will tend to be large, sometimes very large. For
these types of count variables, the types of graphs and summaries used for continuous
variables are often appropriate.

In categorical data each observation falls into one of a number of distinct categories.
Thus a categorical variable has a number of distinct categories. Such data are everywhere
in everyday life. Some examples of pairs of categorical variables are:

• gender and pet preference between cat and dog

• favourite TV show and favourite holiday activity
• gender and favourite food
• favourite sport and colour of hair (e.g. redhead, blonde, brown, black)

Sometimes the categories are natural, such as with gender or preference between cat and
dog, and sometimes they require choice and careful description, such as favourite holiday
activity or favourite food.

INITIAL QUESTIONS THAT CAN MOTIVATE AN INVESTIGATION.

The following are some examples that involve collecting, or accessing, or obtaining,
data for which considerations of representativeness and sources of variation are of
core importance in planning the data investigation, and, in the final phase of the data
investigation, interpretation in context.

A A school is planning catering for a (free) end-of-year concert and wants to estimate the
number of people who will attend. Should they give a survey to all students or should
they survey a subset of students?

B A school would like parents’ opinions on a number of matters that do not lend
themselves to simple questions. The school decides to obtain opinions by asking
questions in person of a representative group of parents. They are wondering whether
to send a message home asking for volunteer parents, or whether to select parents to
be interviewed.

C A group of students are interested in investigating the length of the most popular
songs. They decide to investigate the top 25 songs on the annual JJJ charts over a
number of years.

D When you clasp your hands, which thumb is on top? Most people find that they always
have either the left or right thumb on top and that it is very difficult to clasp their hands
so that the other thumb is on top. There may be a genetic link in these simple actions.
See, for example, http://humangenetics.suite101.com/article.cfm/dominant_human_
genetic_traits which includes the following statement:
 The Improving Mathematics Education in Schools (TIMES) Project {9}

'Clasp your hands together (without thinking about it!). Most people place their left
thumb on top of their right and this happens to be the dominant phenotype.'

A group of students are interested in investigating this.

E How good are people at estimating periods of time? That is, how good are they at
estimating a length of time such as 10 seconds?

F Governments and the Cancer Council and other groups run advertisements, especially
in summer, to try to get people to protect their skin from the effects of exposure to sun.
For example, in November 2009, the campaign for summer 2009-2010 was launched at
Bondi Beach, with towels on the beach representing the Cancer Council’s estimates of
the number of Australians who would die from skin cancer in the next year. They would
like to know if people tend to heed the Slip, Slop, Slap messages, and about differences
such as whether adults are different to teenagers with respect to sun behaviour.

G How aware are people of environmental issues? How knowledgeable are they
of relevant facts?

H Do people tend to use the lift or stairs in going up at a bus or train station?
What proportion of those going up use the lift?

I How long should the green be on pedestrian crossing lights? How long do people
tend to take to cross the road at a pedestrian crossing with crossing lights?

The above are examples of just some of the many questions or topics that can arise that
involve considering how to collect data, sources of variation, and variation within and
across datasets. The examples also involve considerations of summaries of data and
how they vary across datasets. Some of these examples are used here to explore the
progression of development of learning about data investigation and interpretation. The
focus in this module is on planning for data collection, exploring and interpreting variation,
and the variation of features of data.

IDENTIFYING ISSUES AND PLANNING TO OBTAIN REPRESENTATIVE DATA

In the first part of the data investigative process, one or more questions or issues begin
the process of identifying the topic to be investigated. In thinking about how to investigate
these, other questions and ideas can tend to arise. Refining and sorting these questions
and ideas along with considering how we are going to obtain data that is needed to
investigate them, help our planning to take shape. A data investigation is planned through
the interaction of the questions:

• ‘What do we want to find out about?’

• ‘What data can we get?’ and
• ‘How do we get the data?’
{10} A guide for teachers

Planning a data investigation involves identifying its variables, its subjects (that is, on what
or who are our observations going to be collected) and how to collect or access relevant
and representative data.

EXAMPLE A: CATERING FOR (FREE) SCHOOL END-OF-YEAR CONCERT

In this example, ideally the school would know what every school family intends to do,
and there is no interest in generalising outside the school. The school would most likely
request every family to respond to a simple survey asking how many, if any, of each family
plan to attend the concert. This type of data collection, in which the aim is to collect
information about every member of a population, is called a census. We would probably
not think of a form sent to every family of a school being a census, but it is a simple
example of one.

If a census is to obtain the required information from every member of a population,

and if we are interested only in the information for that population, how can there be
any problems with accuracy? The simple scenario above provides some examples. Even
with the best of intentions and care, some forms will not reach some families, and some
will not be returned. There may be misunderstandings – for example, some families
may count their school students in the number attending, and some may not. Changes
may occur between the return of the form and the night of the concert. Based on past
experience – and past data – the school may be able to allow for these sources of
variation in estimating the numbers for catering purposes.

General statistical note

We mostly associate the word 'census' with the censuses carried out by national statistical
offices, such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics. These censuses are major undertakings
conducted to obtain as complete information as possible on variables that are important
for government, industry and the whole community. National censuses aim to obtain
population data not only for vital information for future planning and strategies, but also to
guide further data collections.

Australia conducts a national census approximately every five years. It is called the Census
of Population and Housing. The date of the 16th Australian Census is 9th August, 2011.

The word 'census' comes from the Latin, censere, which means 'to rate', and an essential
and first aim of a country’s census is to count – total number of people and numbers in
different groupings. This is partly why a census is of the whole population.

It is very important for nations to have accurate census data. The quality of Australia’s
census data is highly regarded internationally. What can go wrong in collecting census
data? There are many challenges: ensuring everyone is reported on one and only
one census form, ensuring every census form is completed and returned, omissions,
accidental errors, errors due to language or understanding difficulties, deliberate errors.
National offices of statistics use many sophisticated statistical techniques to estimate and
cross-check for errors, and to 'allow for' the types of challenges outlined above.
 The Improving Mathematics Education in Schools (TIMES) Project {11}

EXAMPLE B: INTERVIEWING FOR PARENTS’ OPINIONS

Not only would it be very time-consuming to interview all parents of a school, but it would
also be very challenging to organise consistent interviews in a reasonable time frame.
Choosing which parents to interview to obtain representative opinions is the ever-present
challenge of choosing how to conduct a sample survey. A random sample would be
obtained by putting all the parents’ names in a hat and selecting the desired number of
names from the mixed up names in the hat. This is selecting the names 'at random' to
obtain a random sample. If students had identity numbers, another way of choosing
a random sample of parents could be to use random numbers to choose students at
random and then ask the opinion questions of their parents. Students could simply
be numbered in any way and random numbers used to choose a random sample of
students, and hence their parents.

General statistical notes on sample surveys

Conducting sample surveys to obtain representative data can be very challenging and
complex – which is why there are specialist polling companies and why designing sample
surveys is such a large part of the work of government statistical offices.

Conducting a survey by asking people to phone in or register an opinion online is

understood to be one of the most unreliable ways of collecting data because the data are
representative only of those who want to phone in or respond online! Phoning people at
random is better but we must consider aspects such as the time of day and what to do if
people refuse to answer the survey.

In the school survey of parents in Example B above, suppose we have carefully chosen a
random sample of parents and mailed the survey form to them. There will always be non-
respondents. Do we ignore them? It is usually recommended to follow up non-respondents
because the original group was chosen randomly and hence are representative, but those
who respond without any prompting could be those who are less busy or those with
stronger opinions. Note that the amount of attention needed to non-responses tends to be
greater when opinions are being sought. If a survey is asking questions about factual matters
that do not tend to produce reactions (e.g. 'what is your height?') then whether people
respond or not, is less likely to be associated with their responses.

It might be felt that parents’ opinions might vary considerably across the school levels in
which their children are. It might be decided to conduct the survey by choosing random
parents of students in different school levels, or grouped levels, for example, Years 7-8,
9-10, 11-12. Within each of these groupings, parents should be chosen at random as
described above. This is called a stratified random sample; the groupings are the strata.

How many parents should be chosen? If a stratified approach is used, how many in total,
and how many from each of the groupings or strata? The formal answers to questions of
how many observations to choose can be complex and always depend on what is trying
to be achieved. For sampling schemes other than simple random sampling from a very
{12} A guide for teachers

large population, these are questions for statisticians and possibly advanced university
students studying statistics to consider. However, one principle that is often used in
stratified sampling is to choose more from the strata that tends to have either more
people in it or greater variation – in this case, of opinions. As you can imagine, these two
(more people and greater variation of opinions) often go hand in hand!

Another type of sampling that is unlikely to be appropriate in Example B but could be

appropriate in situations such as sampling households in a very large city, is cluster
sampling. The totality of sampling subjects (e.g. households) is divided into many clusters
(e.g. streets or blocks); clusters are chosen at random, and all units in the selected clusters
are surveyed.

General statistical notes for teachers’ background information

How many parents should be chosen? The formal answers to questions of how many
observations to choose are not straightforward and depend on what is trying to be
achieved. Such questions are considered at university level, but school students can gain
some idea of the effects of sample size through investigation and experimentation.

Decisions about numbers of observations to collect depend on the aims of the data
investigation and criteria associated with these aims. For example, it might be desired to
estimate a parameter such as a proportion or a mean of a continuous variable. In the case
of estimation, the criteria would be expressed in terms of how close we would like to be to
the true value, and how confident we would like to be in achieving this desired precision.

In the case of estimating a mean of a continuous variable, even deciding how close we
want to be and how confident we want to be in this precision is not sufficient; we also
need to have at least some idea of how much the continuous variable tends to vary.

In the case of categorical data and estimating a proportion, although some idea of the
true value of the proportion is useful, a conservative approach that assumes nothing about
the proportion can be used. The conservative approach can be shown mathematically
to assume that the proportion is somewhere around 0.5. For example, to estimate a
proportion with reasonably high confidence to within 0.05 of its true value can require
up to 400 observations if the true value of the proportion is close to 0.5. Fewer are
required if the true value of the proportion is closer to 0 or 1; for example, if the true
value we are trying to estimate is 1/3, then we require approximately 350 observations to
estimate it with high confidence to within 0.05 of its true value. To estimate a proportion
with reasonably high confidence to within 0.01 of its true value can require up to 10,000
observations. To estimate it with reasonably high confidence to within 0.1 can require up
to 100 observations.

Estimating to within 0.1 means that if we obtain 55% of our subjects who, for example,
have their left thumb on top when they clasp their hands, then all we can say is that we
are reasonably confident that the true value lies somewhere between 45% and 65%.
 The Improving Mathematics Education in Schools (TIMES) Project {13}

Although students do not need to know anything of the above details until senior or
university studies, it is valuable for teachers to know so that they can help in developing
and guiding students’ notions of variation across datasets and uncertainty in thinking
beyond the data 'in hand' to a more general situation of which we may consider the data
to be representing.

Note that the true value of the proportion referred to above is for the general situation or
population for which our data are representative.

EXAMPLE C: LENGTH OF SONGS

Obtaining data for the top 25 of the JJJ charts for a number of years is taking a census
of the top 25 in that chart for the selected years. It is not a random sample of songs
produced or played. Could it be considered to be representative of top 25 (JJJ) songs
beyond the years of collection? Could it be considered representative of popular
songs with respect to any question? For example, could such a dataset be considered
representative of the lengths of popular songs – if only for those years? There is no way of
knowing, is there? In any reporting it must be very clear that the songs considered are the
top 25 JJJ songs in each of the years selected, and generalisations should be avoided.

EXAMPLE D: WHICH THUMB IS ON TOP?

Almost everyone finds that when they clasp their hands, the same thumb tends to be on
top and it is very difficult to clasp such that the other thumb is on top. This observation,
plus scientific articles such as the one at http://humangenetics.suite101.com/article.cfm/
dominant_human_genetic_traits, do tend to indicate that it is a characteristic an individual
is born with – a genetic trait. To estimate the proportion of people who have their left
thumb on top when they clasp their hands, can we just select any group? If there is no
information about how such a genetic trait might be linked with other traits, how can
we choose a representative dataset, and of what do we want to be representative? In
a situation like this in a real data investigation, we might collect data on other variables
to investigate the possibility of links between thumb on top and other variables such as
gender, handedness etc.

Although we have to choose people to observe, and hence, as in Example B, we are

choosing who to 'survey', this type of investigation is not usually thought of as a 'survey'
because we are observing characteristics of people, and it is not clear whether following
types of procedures used for surveying people is going to be any more representative with
respect to the question of which thumb is on top, than an arbitrary sample!
{14} A guide for teachers

EXAMPLE E: ESTIMATING A LENGTH OF TIME

How well do people estimate a length of time such as 10 seconds or a minute? And
how should they be asked to estimate it? One way is to use a stopwatch and start the
stopwatch and the subject on 'go' with the subject calling 'stop' when they think the time
period is finished. Their estimate is the time recorded by the stopwatch. The variable is the
guessed or estimated time and the observations are recorded per person.

EXAMPLE F: SUN PROTECTION SURVEY

How aware are adults and teenagers of the need for sun protection, and do they
act on any such awareness? Does the Slip, Slop, Slap message have any effect? The
National Sun Protection Survey of 2006-2007 was the second such survey; the first was
conducted in 2003-2004. The study is funded by the Cancer Council Australia and the
Australian Government through Cancer Australia. Trying to obtain accurate and consistent
information about people’s sun protection habits is very challenging because people
themselves can be quite inconsistent in behaviour of this type, and it may depend on
a number of factors as well as on interpretation of questions. The 2006-2007 survey
reached respondents through phone interviews conducted on Monday and Tuesday
evenings during summer. The interviews focussed on weekend behaviour in summer,
and also recorded whether the person was an adolescent or an adult, and in which state
they lived. These questions give data for three categorical variables for each person: sun
protection behaviour on the weekend; age group; and location (state where live).

Notice the methods used to try to obtain as representative a group as possible, and
to try to obtain consistency in conditions of the questions. Random phone dialling is used;
phone calls are made in weeknight evenings so that those at home are representative of
the whole population. Making the calls on Mondays and Tuesdays serves two purposes:
people are less likely to be out on those weeknights, and the closer to the weekend,
the better it is for achieving accurate memory. Asking about weekend behaviour helps
in obtaining consistency of conditions as working conditions are highly variable. Also
weekend activities are more likely to involve the outdoors across a wide range of people.

EXAMPLE G: ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS AND KNOWLEDGE

Notice that there are two aspects in this topic as people’s awareness is not the same as
people’s knowledge. Hence the survey questions will need to cover both aspects, will
need careful thought and the survey will take at least a few minutes to complete. Should
a survey like this be conducted in person or not? Conducting surveys 'remotely', whether
by paper or online is less expensive and can reach more people but the questions must
have no possibility at all of any ambiguity and there is the problem of the non-responses,
particularly from the representative point of view. This is why some survey designs use a
follow-up tactic on non-respondents.
 The Improving Mathematics Education in Schools (TIMES) Project {15}

Survey questions must be absolutely clear to all respondents. Unless it is known exactly
what each question means to each respondent, survey data are useless.

If a survey is conducted in person, it is still best to have the questions on paper so that
exactly the same questions are asked in exactly the same order. Just as much care is
required in preparation and trialling of the questions beforehand. The advantages of
'in-person' surveying are that it tends to be easier for people to respond and hence the
response rate tends to be better; reasons for non-response can sometimes be noted; any
unforeseen ambiguities can be corrected; extra comments can be noted; and the overall
effort for respondents tends to be less, leading to more and better quality data.

A question such as 'are you concerned about environmental issues?' can be a leading
question. Many people would be reluctant to say no, or even don’t know. A better way
of asking about concern could be to ask someone to rate their degree of concern for
environmental issues from 1 to 5 of increasing concern with 3 neutral. (1 being very
unconcerned, 2 unconcerned, 3 neutral, 4 concerned and 5 very concerned).

There are many considerations in designing a survey like this; some are discussed in
general below.

General statistical notes on survey questions

In a survey as in Example G, knowledge (e.g. of environmental issues) can be surveyed

by factual statement questions and asking for a true, false or don’t know response. A
mixture of true and false statements is advisable, and it is sometimes recommended to
commence with a statement that is easy to answer to help people get started.

As mentioned in Example G, statements or questions that are difficult to disagree with,

can place pressure on respondents as well as potentially distort information. For example,
in the context of Example G, a question such as 'do you agree that the media could do
more to create awareness of important environmental issues?' and 'Do you recycle as
often as you can?' are unlikely to provide accurate or useful information.

Exercise: Suggest ways questions on these issues could be phrased in order to obtain
accurate information.

In a survey, an open question is one in which respondents are allowed to answer in their
own words; a closed question is one in which respondents are given a list of alternatives
from which to choose their answer. Usually, the latter form offers a choice of 'other' in
which the respondent is allowed to fill in the blank. Both types of questions have strengths
and weaknesses.

To show the limitation of closed questions, consider Example G and how to ask what
people think are the most important environmental problems (or challenges). This could
be asked by an open or closed question, with the latter consisting of a list for respondents
to choose the most important or to rank importance.
{16} A guide for teachers

If closed questions are preferred, they first could be presented as open questions to a test
sample before the real survey, and the most common responses could then be included
in the list of choices for the closed question. This kind of 'pilot survey,' in which various
aspects of a study design can be tried before it’s too late to change them, should always
be conducted.

The biggest problem with open questions is that the results can be difficult to summarise.
If a survey includes thousands of respondents, it can be a major chore to categorise their
responses. Another problem is that the wording of the question might unintentionally
exclude answers that would have been appealing had they been included in a list of
choices (such as in a closed question).

There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches. One compromise is to ask
a small test sample to list the first several answers that come to mind, then use the most
common of those. These could be supplemented with additional answers that may not
readily come to mind.

General statistical notes on survey confidentiality/anonymity

People will often answer questions differently based on the degree to which they believe
they are anonymous. Because researchers often need to perform follow-up surveys,
it is easier to try to ensure confidentiality than anonymity. In ensuring confidentiality,
the researcher promises not to release identifying information about respondents. In an
anonymous survey, the researcher does not know the identity of the respondents.

Such considerations are also very important in a nation’s census data. In Australia, the
Census Information Legislation Amendment Bill 2005 amended the Census and Statistics
Act 1905 and the Archives Act 1983 to 'ensure that name-identified information collected
at the 2006 Census and all subsequent censuses, from those households that provide
explicit consent, will be preserved for future genealogical and other research, and released
after 99 years' http://www.aph.gov.au/library/Pubs/BD/2005-06/06bd071.htm . This
Bill was essentially a compromise between the needs of history and the need to obtain
accurate census data.

EXAMPLE H: LIFT OR STAIRS?

Information about people’s behaviour can be important in designing public facilities. Bus
and train stations need to be able to cope with many people in peak hours. Most big
bus stations have stairs and lifts – not just for underground bus stations, but also linking
pedestrian overpasses to platforms, just like train stations. As well as information about
numbers of people using the stations at various times, estimates of the proportion of users
who tend to use the stairs or lifts could be valuable input to the design process.
 The Improving Mathematics Education in Schools (TIMES) Project {17}

To collect relevant data, certain times would need to be chosen, and numbers of people
using stairs or lifts to go up or down in those time periods recorded. Although this would
probably be regarded as an observational study rather than a census or a survey or an
experiment, notice that there are still choices to be made to obtain representative data
– namely, the times for observation. If peak periods are of concern, then these would be
chosen. Notice that the times would not be chosen at random; rather the observation
periods are the conditions under which the observations are made.

EXAMPLE I: HOW LONG SHOULD THE GREEN LAST?

Like Example H, this topic would be motivated by design issues. The length of green for
a set of pedestrian lights is clearly dependent on the width of the crossing. The width of
the crossing and information about walking speeds could be used, but what is important
here? Is it the average walking speed? No, because some allowance needs to be made
for slower people – that is, variation in walking speeds must be taken into account. Also
walking speeds in crossing a road might be different to walking speeds in general. Hence
data on how long people take to cross a road of in a certain type of locality (e.g. in the
city, at a school crossing) could then be valuable information for crossings of that type,
allowing for different widths of crossings.

How much should be allowed for variation in times to cross? That is, how much
allowance for variation should there be?

As in Example H, this would be an observational study, but with control over the
conditions for the observations. In studies such as these, providing full details of the how,
when and where of the data collection, together with descriptions of the circumstances
to explain any choices of conditions, is essential for sound interpretation of the data, and
for the study to be extended or repeated in the future if this becomes desirable.

VARIATION WITHIN AND ACROSS DATASETS

Statistics is the science of variation and uncertainty – the science of investigating,

identifying, measuring, estimating, describing, modelling, attributing, interpreting,
minimising and allowing for, variation and uncertainty.

In the data strand, we focus more on the variation aspects. We will consider some aspects
of variation in the above examples.

Census data

A census aims to obtain information from a whole population. Questions of

representativeness do not arise if we have the required information on the whole population.
In reporting and using census data, identifying, describing, investigating and attributing
variation are all important, but in principle we do not have to consider variation and
uncertainty due to sampling – that is, due to having a subset of a whole population, or to
having a set of observations that are representative in some way of a more general situation.
{18} A guide for teachers

This is 'in principle' because in large and complex censuses, such as national censuses,
mistakes, omissions, non-responses or even non-contacts must be investigated, modelled,
estimated and allowed for. Such issues are very complex and challenging, requiring very
advanced statistical expertise and information. Minimising the risk of these difficulties also
requires significant government and statistical knowledge and expertise, with associated
thorough and high quality planning.

Example A includes, on a small scale, some of these challenges of a census. All families
need to be contacted; the question(s) must be clear to avoid unintentional mistakes;
allowance must be made for mis-reporting (in the case of Example A, this is essentially
changes of plans after returning the form); and non-returns of forms requires estimation
of the unknown intentions of non-respondents. In Example A, the effects of these issues
are probably not great – after all, there is still estimation required of the amount of catering
required even if the attendance is known accurately! But the example does provide at
least some idea of the enormous challenges (and expense) of a national census. But
the need for, and value of, high quality national census data for every aspect of strategic
planning for a country, cannot be sufficiently emphasized.

Classroom Activity: Explore the Australian Bureau of Statistics website on Census data
http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/d3310114.nsf/home/census+data Find the report for
your location, and identify at least two planning issues for your location for which the
Census data provides valuable information.

In Example C, the dataset can be regarded as a census of the top 25 songs on the JJJ
charts for the years for which the data were collected. The only mistakes or omissions
here would be collecting ones. The dotplot and stem-and-leaf plot below show the
lengths (in seconds) of the JJJ top 25 songs for 1993-2006.

Length in secs of JJJ top 25 songs 1993 – 2006

140 210 280 350 420 490 560

Length
 The Improving Mathematics Education in Schools (TIMES) Project {19}

Stem-and-leaf of Length

Leaf Unit = 10
1 09

17 1 0000122234444444

82 1 55555555556666667777777777777778888888888888888899999999999999999+

(150) 2 00000000000000000000000000000000001111111111111111111111111111111+

118 2 55555555555555555555666666666666666666666667777777777777777777888+

41 3 0000000000011111111112222244

13 3 55556688

5 4 022

2 4 6

1 5

1 5 7

The lengths vary from 90 seconds up to an unusually long song (compared to the rest)
of 570 seconds (to the nearest 10 seconds). The second longest song is 460 seconds.
However almost all the songs are between 2 and 6 minutes long, and most are between
3 and 5 minutes.

Which do you think would be larger for these data? The average or the median? Answer:
the average because of the few values that are much larger than the rest of the values; in
fact, the average length is 234 secs and the median is 229 secs.

Sample data: categorical data

For categorical variables – and hence categorical data – we are interested in relative
frequencies or proportions of the different categories. If we have census data, we can
simply report percentages or proportions for a country. If we have sample data that are
representative of some general situation, we are interested in using the sample data to
estimate proportions for the more general situation.

Hence we need some idea of how much variation we could get across different samples
of data and hence how much variation we could get in our estimate of the proportion in
the more general situation. Involved in these questions are also the questions of:

• whether our sample(s) of data are representative of the general situation – or, from
another viewpoint, of what can we consider our sample(s) of data to be representative?

• can any variation we observe be attributed to, or explained by, some other variables?
{20} A guide for teachers

EXAMPLE D: WHICH THUMB IS ON TOP?

When individuals clasp their hands, either the left or right thumb tends to be on top and it
is very difficult to clasp one’s hands with the other thumb on top. It is claimed that this is a
genetically-linked characteristic, just as whether people can roll the sides of their tongues
or not is a genetic characteristic.

So it should be reasonably simple to estimate the proportion of people in general who

have their left thumb on top when they clasp their hands. Left thumb on top is claimed
to be genetically dominant ( see, for example, http://humangenetics.suite101.com/
article.cfm/dominant_human_genetic_traits). That is, we do not have to worry about
the circumstances of collecting the data and any reasonably random sample – perhaps
avoiding close relatives within the sample – should be reasonably representative.

But how many observations should we collect to estimate the proportion of people
who place their left thumb on top and how much will our sample proportion vary over
different samples?

In a group of 203 people, the following barchart shows how many had their left thumb
on top.

THUMB ON TOP
120
100
80
60
40
COUNT

20

0
Left Right
THUMB ON TOP

The percentage of these 203 people with the left thumb on top was approximately 57%.

Whatever the true % overall for everyone is – that is, whatever the % of people who have
their left thumb on top when they clasp hands – we are not going to get this % when we
take a sample of people no matter how representative our sample is. Indeed, it is because
a sample is random that we will not get the same %. Variability across samples of data is
called sampling variability. How great is it likely to be?

Assuming that 57% is the true % of people overall who have their left thumb on top when
they clasp hands, below are a dotplot and a stem-and-leaf plot of the %’s in 100 different
samples of people, with each sample consisting of 20 randomly chosen people. (See
Appendix 1 for how to generate such data using Excel.)
 The Improving Mathematics Education in Schools (TIMES) Project {21}

Percentages in 100 samples each of 20 people

35 42 49 56 63 70 77

Percentages

Stem-and-leaf of Percentages

Leaf Unit = 1.0

1 3 0

3 3 55

6 4 000

15 4 555555555

29 5 00000000000000

47 5 555555555555555555

(17) 6 00000000000000000

36 6 555555555555555555555

15 7 000000000000

3 7 55

1 8 0

The percentages above vary from 30% to 80%!

The above samples of size 20 have been obtained by simulation. But data on how people
clasp their hands are quite easy to collect quickly and from many people. Ask each
student in the class to ask 20 people to clasp their hands and report how many had their
left thumb on top. Use a dotplot or stem-and-leaf as above to show how much variation
there is in the percentages collected by the students.

So if we are trying to estimate the proportion of all people who have their left thumb
on top in clasping hands, we should pool all the data we can. Suppose we collect 200
observations. Below is a stem-and-leaf of 100 samples, each of 200 randomly chosen
people, with the overall percentage of people who place their left thumb on top in
clasping hands, being again 57%.
{22} A guide for teachers

Stem-and-leaf of Percentages

Leaf Unit = 1.0

1 4 8

5 5 1111

19 5 22222233333333

34 5 444444455555555

(23) 5 66666666666677777777777

43 5 88888888899999999999

23 6 00000000001111

9 6 222223

3 6 55

1 6 6

In these 100 samples, each of 200 people, the percentages still vary from 48% to 66%!
And if we took another 100 samples, each of 200 people, we would not get exactly the
same variation in the %’s.

Let’s see what can happen if we ask 1000 people. Below is a stem-and-leaf plot of the
percentages of 1000 people in 100 randomly chosen samples – each with 1000 people –
assuming still that over all people in general, 57% have their left thumb on top when they
clasp hands.

Stem-and-leaf of Percentages

Leaf Unit = 0.10

1 53 0

2 54 0

17 55 000000000000000

40 56 00000000000000000000000

(20) 57 00000000000000000000

40 58 00000000000000000000000000

14 59 000000

8 60 00000000
 The Improving Mathematics Education in Schools (TIMES) Project {23}

We see that in these 100 samples of 1000 people, the %’s with left thumb on top range
from 53% to 60%; not as variable as in the samples of 200 people and certainly much less
variable than in the samples of 20 people.

Clearly we have to be very careful in reporting %’s, and clearly we need a lot of data
to be able to accurately estimate proportions. We need to always report how many
observations were collected, and how they were collected, and can say only what the %
was in our data.

Classroom Activity: Whether people can curl the sides of their tongues is a well-known
genetic variable. Students could collect small amounts of data (for example, samples of
size 20) to investigate the sample variability of the proportion of people who can curl the
sides of their tongues.

Data for Example H below illustrates further the variability in proportions across samples of
data of categorical variables

EXAMPLE H: LIFT OR STAIRS TO GO UP?

At a certain bus station, data were collected on a normal day during both the morning and
evening peak times with the aim being to try to estimate what proportion of people going
up choose to use the lift rather than the stairs. The data are below, presented in the form
of two-way tables for each of the peak periods – morning and evening.

TABLE OF CHOICE OF LIFT OR STAIRS

FOR GOING UP OR DOWN: EVENING PEAK
DOWN UP TOTAL
Lift 76 300 376

Stairs 420 213 633

Total 496 513 1009

TABLE OF CHOICE OF LIFT OR STAIRS

FOR GOING UP OR DOWN: MORNING PEAK
DOWN UP TOTAL
Lift 45 222 267

Stairs 204 210 414

Total 249 432 681

{24} A guide for teachers

Overall, in these data, 522/945 = 0.5524 (or 55.24%) of the people going up chose to
use the lift, while only 121/745 = 0.1624 (or 16.24%) of the people going down chose to
use the lift. In the evening, these %’s were 58.5% and 15.3%; while in the morning peak,
these %’s were 51.4% and 18.1%. Before you are tempted to say that more people tend to
take the lift to go up in the evening, but more tend to take the lift down in the morning
(more tired in the evening going up, but more in a hurry going down in the morning?),
remember how much these %’s can vary even with such large numbers of observations.

Below are dotplots of the percentages choosing the lift to go up for 500 people in the
evening and 430 people in the morning if the true %’s in general are 59% for the evening
and 51% for the morning.

Percentage up evening

Percentage up evening
48 51 54 57 60 63

Notice that it is possible to get %’s that are very close together and even to get %’s in
reverse with a slightly greater % of people in the morning than the evening choosing the
lift to go up. So for the observed data in the tables, we can quote the %’s but say that there
is some indication that the morning behaviour is different to the evening behaviour – but
we’d be cautious.

What can happen if the true percentages are closer together? Below are dotplots of the
percentages choosing the lift to go up for 500 people in the evening and 430 people in
the morning if the true %’s are 58% for the evening and 52% for the morning.

Percentage up evening_58

Percentage up evening_52
47.5 50.0 52.5 55.0 57.5 60.0 62.5

So we see that there’s more chance of observing %’s that are close together or with the
morning % greater than the evening %.
 The Improving Mathematics Education in Schools (TIMES) Project {25}

Does the same sampling behaviour tend to happen with the smaller %’s of 15% and
18%? These are the observed %’s for the people who choose to use the lift to go down
in the evening and morning peak hours. These are much closer together than the %’s
considered above. Let’s see what can happen if these are the true %’s in general. Below
are dotplots of the %’s using the lift in 100 samples of 500 people going down in the
evening and in 100 samples of 250 people going down in the morning, assuming that the
true %’s in general are 15% and 18% respectively.

Percentage up evening

12.6 14.4 16.2 18.0 19.8 21.6 23.4

Percentage up morning

So there’s a lot of overlap as we would expect with the true %’s so close together. Notice
how much more variable the %’s are for the morning groups because there’s only 250 in
each group compared with 500 in each of the evening groups.

So based on the single observed dataset in the tables above, we could report the %’s
who chose to use the lift to go down in the morning and evening peak periods but our
comment should be that they are very close!

The examples above are of categorical data with just two categories so that looking at the
variation across samples could focus on looking at the variation in the percentages of one
of the categories. In Example D, there was one categorical variable; in Example H there
were three categorical variables (peak period, direction, choice of lift or stairs) and the
interest in Example H is not just in individual %’s but also %’s within different categories and
in comparing these %’s over the two peak periods.

For categorical variables with more than two categories, the %’s in each category vary
across samples in a similar way to the above examples. A dynamic illustration of this
variation for different sample sizes can be found in the Categorical Variables section
of http://www.censusatschool.org.nz/2009/informal-inference/WPRH/ . This dynamic
illustration is of a barchart of the %’s using different types of transport to school in
Auckland. The samples of different sizes are chosen at random (with replacement) from a
large dataset obtained through the Census at School project in New Zealand.

Sample data: continuous data

For samples of continuous data we are interested in describing the variation of values
within a sample (just as we are if we have continuous data in a census) and in considering
how much variation there could be across samples collected in the same circumstances.
{26} A guide for teachers

EXAMPLE E: ESTIMATING A LENGTH OF TIME

Below is a dotplot of the guesses (in seconds) of 10 seconds for 120 people chosen at
random. Each person was asked to guess 10 seconds from the time 'go' was said and their
guess was recorded by a stopwatch. For each person there was no practice or repetition
– this was their first and only guess at 10 seconds in this investigation.

4.2 5.6 7.0 8.4 9.8 11.2 12.6 14.0

10 second guess

The guesses are highly variable, ranging from about 4 seconds up to just under 14 seconds.
Most seem to be under 10 seconds.

How much variation could we see across such samples? There are a number of sources
of variation in this example in a real study: variation from person to person; variation for
each person, as an individual is not going to guess exactly the same length each time they
try; and variation due to measuring the length of the guess. Another possible source of
variation is variation due to the conditions of the experiment although these can be kept
as constant as possible.

These types of variation – from person to person, for each person and due to
measurement – can be modelled statistically, but let’s just focus on variation due to
sampling by taking random samples from this set of values. That is, we are going to
consider that each of these 120 values is equally likely to be chosen, and we are going to
choose from these 120 values at random. So that the chance of getting each value stays
the same, we are going to sample with replacement. That is, if a value is chosen, it is not
removed from the set of values from which we can choose.

This simulation can be carried out by writing the observed values on 120 different pieces
of paper, putting them in a container, and choosing a number of pieces of paper at
random from the container, replacing each piece of paper before the next 'draw' after
recording its value. See Appendix 1 for how to obtain simulated samples using Excel. This
type of sampling is called re-sampling (with replacement).

Below are dotplots of the 120 values and 5 samples, each of 20 values, chosen at random
(with replacement) from these 120 values.
 The Improving Mathematics Education in Schools (TIMES) Project {27}

10 second guess

sample 1

sample 2

sample 3

sample 4

sample 5

4.2 5.6 7.0 8.4 9.8 11.2 12.6 14.0

The variation across the 5 samples that we can see in the above is entirely due to random
sampling, and we see that there can be quite a lot of variation due to sampling.

The ranges in the 5 samples vary, with two having their minima about 4.5 seconds, and
the rest about 6 seconds. One has its maximum value about 13.5 seconds, and the others
about 11.5 to 12 seconds.

The averages (to the nearest 0.1 sec) of these 5 samples are: 8.66 secs, 9.49 secs, 9.46
secs, 9.10 secs, 9.16 secs.

How much variation could there be in the averages of samples of size 20 from these
120 values? The average of the 120 values is 9.4 secs (to the nearest 0.1 sec). Below is a
dotplot of the averages of 100 samples of size 20 chosen at random (with replacement)
from the 120 values.

8.50 8.75 9.00 9.25 9.50 9.75 10.00 10.25

Average

We see that there can be a lot of variation in the average.

{28} A guide for teachers

What can happen if we take larger samples? Below is the above dotplot repeated together
with a dotplot of the averages of 100 random samples each of size 80 (all samples taken
from the original 120 values).

Average

Average
8.50 8.75 9.00 9.25 9.50 9.75 10.00 10.25

We see that there is much less variation in the averages of the samples of size 80
compared with the samples of size 20, just as there was much less variation in the sample
proportions for categorical data as we took larger and larger samples.

This is why we take as many observations as we can to estimate quantities such as

proportions and means.

Classroom Activity: The focus of the above example is on sampling variability. The
original set of 120 observations illustrates considerable variation across different people in
estimating 10 seconds. Students can investigate variability of individuals in estimating 10
seconds by collecting a number (for example, 10) of observations for each person. They
can then compare the variability of individuals’ guesses across individuals. They could also
calculate the average guesses and look at the variation in those, and their best (that is,
closest to 10 seconds) guesses and look at the variation in the best guesses.

EXAMPLE E: ESTIMATING A LENGTH OF TIME:

COMPARING MALES AND FEMALES
In the data for the guesses (in seconds) of 10 seconds for 120 people chosen at random,
there were 60 females and 60 males. Note that this also means that a fixed number of
males and females were chosen at random rather than the whole 120 people. Below is a
dotplot of the guesses separated into males and females.

female

male
4.2 5.6 7.0 8.4 9.8 11.2 12.6 14.0
 The Improving Mathematics Education in Schools (TIMES) Project {29}

The averages are very close: they are 9.35 secs for females and 9.44 secs for males. Having
seen how much averages can vary across samples just because of sampling variability, we
are definitely not going to say that these data indicate that males and females differ on
average in their guesses of 10 seconds! There is also not much difference in the variability
in these two sets of 60 observations: there are 2 males who greatly underestimated 10
secs, with the guesses of most of the males in this group perhaps rather more bunched
than those of most of the females. But these comments are about these particular two
groups of observations. Now that we’ve seen how much variation there can be due to
sampling, we know to be careful in generalising from these data.

General statistical notes on information from data

We obtain data in order to obtain information. A census aims to obtain the total
information for a population, usually of a country. In obtaining sample data, whether of
a population or under certain conditions, we aim to obtain representative data, because
we need representative data to be able to obtain representative information. Obtaining
representative data means our observations must be a random sample – by choosing
randomly if we are dealing with a population, or by taking observations randomly under
the same circumstances if we are dealing with an observational or experimental situation.

Because practicalities often govern what can and can’t be collected, we often have to
assume that our data are representative of a more general situation. This is why it is of the
greatest importance to describe exactly how data were obtained or collected. Also, data
can be considered representative in considering some questions, but not for others.

General statistical notes on generalising from data samples: statistical inference

The above examples clearly show how much care is needed in using samples of data to
generalise to a situation of which the data are representative. This is called inferring from
data. Statistical inference provides principles and methods for inferring from data that
take account of the variation due to sampling. Because these methods are developed
from clearly stated assumptions and models of variation, the methods can be applied
and interpreted universally. The models make use of theory and mathematical models of
variation that are studied at university level. But examples that involve comparing different
datasets collected under the same conditions, or obtained by simulation as above, help in
understanding how much variation can happen across samples and how much quantities
such as percentages and averages can vary. This helps in being cautious in generalising
from data.

The above examples illustrate that what is needed is to be able to say how much the true
proportion or true mean could vary from what we get in just one sample of data (that is,
our sample proportion or sample mean). That is, what is needed is to be able to give an
interval which we are fairly confident will include the overall proportion or mean of the
general situation of which our data are representative. How to do this and how to use it
is beyond this level, but if you now read in the media, a report such as 'the percentage of
adults who agree with …… is estimated to be between 54% and 59%' then you know that
the investigators are doing what they should do, namely, making a statistical inference that
allows for sampling variability.
{30} A guide for teachers

The quantities calculated from data that have been considered in the above examples are
proportions (or percentages) for categorical data, and averages for continuous data. These
are not necessarily the only quantities of interest, as the following example shows.

EXAMPLE I: HOW LONG SHOULD THE GREEN LAST

FOR A PEDESTRIAN CROSSING?
In deciding how long to make the green for any particular pedestrian crossing, the
traffic conditions and width of the crossing need to be considered, but what should be
considered about the crossing speed of pedestrians? Should we consider the average
crossing speed of pedestrians? Should we consider the range of types of pedestrians
who use that crossing? These two questions immediately raise two sources of variation:
variability in crossing speeds and variability in types of pedestrians. But whatever types of
pedestrians we consider, we don’t want to set the length of green to average crossing
speed. What is more likely to be useful is to estimate the crossing speed that most
users can manage from a standing start. Hence good information about the variability
of crossing speeds is needed. It might be decided to estimate the crossing speed that
95% of people can manage from a standing start, so that the flashing red signal caters
for everyone from a standing start. Then the criteria for the decision about length of the
flashing red also need to be chosen!

Classroom Activity: collect data from a number of pedestrian lights measuring the length
of the green and the length of the flashing red to investigate the variation in these lengths
across different pedestrian crossings and the relationships between the length of green
and the length of flashing red.

CAN WE SEEK TO EXPLAIN VARIABILITY?

In some of the examples above, there is interest in investigating comparisons of data on

one variable with respect to one or more other variables. For example, do commuters
tend to be more likely in the morning or evening peak to use a lift instead of stairs to go
up at a bus station? Are males better at guessing lengths of time than females?

This is investigating if a variable is affected by others. Looking at this from another point
of view, we are often interested in investigating whether a variable is affected by others,
and if so, to what extent. That is, we are often interested in trying to explain at least some
of the variability in data by investigating if other variables may be affecting the data. For
example, if which thumb is placed on top in clasping hands is claimed to be genetically
linked, then we might wonder if males tend to be different to females, or if left-handed
tendencies might be associated with this tendency. That is, we might seek to explain
some of the variability across individuals by investigating if there are differences between
males and females, and left- and right-handers.
 The Improving Mathematics Education in Schools (TIMES) Project {31}

For aspects such as measuring reflexes or guessing time periods, we might wish to
investigate whether any or all of age, gender or different conditions affect the result. For
example, does listening to music affect people’s ability to guess periods of time or their
reaction times? Experiments or observational studies or a mixture of observation and
experiment could be designed to investigate these issues. There will always be sampling
variability, and almost always at least some natural variability due to variability within and
across people and/or natural conditions. But statistical methods are developed to ask if
some of the observed variability in the data can be attributed to other variables.

SOME GENERAL COMMENTS AND

LINKS FROM F-7 AND TOWARDS YEAR 9
From F-7, students have gradually developed understanding and familiarity with concepts
and usage of the statistical data investigative process, types of data and variables, types of
investigations and at least some types of graphical and summary presentations of data. In
developing these, considerations have increasingly arisen of the need for representative
data, and of describing and/or allowing for variability within and across datasets.

In order to understand how to interpret and report information from data, students need
to develop at least some understanding of the effects of sampling variability. This also
helps in developing understanding of the need for formal statistical inference, even if the
methods, results and processes of statistical inference are not introduced until senior or
tertiary levels. Statistical inference also requires that data be representative of a population
or general situation with respect to the questions or issues of interest.

Hence this module has discussed the challenges of obtaining representative data,
emphasizing the importance of clear reporting of how, when and where data are
obtained or collected, and of identifying the issues or questions for which data are desired
to be representative. The module has also used real data and simulations, including re-
sampling from real data, to illustrate how sample data and data summaries such as sample
proportions and averages can vary across samples.

As in Years 4-7, the examples of this module again illustrate the extent of statistical thinking
involved in all aspects of a statistical data investigation, in particular in identifying the
questions/issues, in planning and in commenting on information obtained from data.

Questions of planning to obtain representative data to investigate everyday questions

and issues involving a number of variables are considered further in Year 9, along with
developing further skills in exploring, understanding and interpreting data. These build on
the greater emphasis in this module on recognising, exploring and interpreting variation
within data and across datasets. As in Years F-8, concepts are introduced, developed and
demonstrated in contexts that continue the development of experiential learning of the
statistical data investigation process.
{32} A guide for teachers

APPENDIX 1

To use Excel to generate random data, requires the add-in of Data Analysis under Tools.

To use Data Analysis under Tools to generate a number of random samples of data on a
categorical variable with a given probability for the category of interest, choose Random
Number Generator. For Number of Variables, enter 1. For Number of Random Numbers,
enter the number of different samples you want to generate – for example, 100 has been
used in many of the examples of this module. For Distribution, choose Binomial. Under
the Parameters that appear for Binomial, the p Value is the proportion you wish to assume
as the true (or overall population) proportion, and the Number of trials is the size of the
sample you wish to generate (for example, you might wish to consider samples of 20
people). The output range needs to be a single column of the same size as the Random
Number you chose. The output will consist of a set of numbers out of the Number of
trials, so divide by the Number of trials to obtain the simulated proportions.

To use Data Analysis under Tools to generate a number of random samples of data from
a given set of values (that is to re-sample from a given set of data), the original data needs
to be in a column, with a second column consisting of 1/(number of observations) in each
cell. As this second column must sum to 1, you might need to slightly adjust values you
enter to ensure this. Choose Random Number Generator. In Number of Variables, enter
the number of samples you wish to generate. In Number of Random Numbers, enter the
size of the samples. In Distribution, choose Discrete. In Value and Probability Input Range,
give the column in which you placed the original data, and the column in which each
value is equal (allowing for perhaps a slight adjustment) and sum to 1. In Output Range,
give a range of number of columns being the chosen number of samples, and the size of
each column being the chosen sample size.
The aim of the International Centre of Excellence for
Education in Mathematics (ICE-EM) is to strengthen
education in the mathematical sciences at all levels-
from school to advanced research and contemporary
applications in industry and commerce.

ICE-EM is the education division of the Australian

Mathematical Sciences Institute, a consortium of
27 university mathematics departments, CSIRO
Mathematical and Information Sciences, the Australian
Bureau of Statistics, the Australian Mathematical Society
and the Australian Mathematics Trust.

The ICE-EM modules are part of The Improving

Mathematics Education in Schools (TIMES) Project.

The modules are organised under the strand

titles of the Australian Curriculum:

• Number and Algebra

• Measurement and Geometry
• Statistics and Probability

The modules are written for teachers. Each module

contains a discussion of a component of the
mathematics curriculum up to the end of Year 10.

www.amsi.org.au