Question

A teacher wants to choose a student at random. The teacher decides to choose the first person to walk through the classroom door at the start of the lesson.

a. Explain why this is not a good method.
2. Suggest a better method.

Answer 1

The first person to arrive is not random. The person that mostly arrives first every time is the person who lives closest to the school, or is a teacher's pet.

The odds of the person who lives 20km away from the school being first are way lower than anyone else.

A better method, would be everyone writes their name on a paper, and the teacher picks one at random from a hat.