Question

A survey of a group of seventh graders and a group of teachers at a local middle school asked how many siblings they each have. The dot plots below show the results.

Students
A dot plot titled Students. A number line going from 0 to 9 labeled number of siblings. There are 2 dots above 0, 4 above 1, 7 above 2, 5 above 3, 2 above 4, and 0 above 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.

Teachers
A dot plot titled Teachers. A number line going from 0 to 9 labeled Number of siblings. There is 1 dot above 0, 3 dots above 1, 2 above 2, 4 above 3, 5 above 4, 3 above 5, 1 above 6, 0 above 7, 1 above 8, and 0 above 9.

Which compares the medians of the data?
The median for the students is 4 and the median for the teachers is 8.
The median for the students is 2 and the median for the teachers is 3.
The median for the students is 4 and the median for the teachers is 3.
The median for the students is 2 and the median for the teachers is 8.

Answer 1

B. The median for the students is 2 and the median for the teachers is 3.

Explanation:

Answer 2

The closest statement is B. The median for the students is 2 and the median for the teachers is 3.

Explanation:

1. Let's review the information provided to us to answer the question correctly:

Number of students = 20

Siblings 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Students 2 4 7 5 2 0 0 0 0 0

Number of teachers = 20

Siblings 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Teachers 1 3 2 4 5 3 1 0 1 0

2. Which statement compares the medians of the data?

Let's recall that the median of a set of data (students or teachers) is the middlemost number in the set. The median is also the number that is halfway into the set. To find the median, the data should be arranged in order from least to greatest. If there is an even number of items in the data set, then the median is found by taking the mean (average) of the two middlemost numbers, the 10th and 11th values from left to right for the students and teachers.

Upon saying that, let's meet the median of the data sets provided:

Median for the students = 10th and 11th values/2

Median for the students = (2 + 2)/2 = 2

Median for the teachers = 10th and 11th values/2

Median for the teachers = (3 +4)/2 = 3.5

The closest statement is B. The median for the students is 2 and the median for the teachers is 3.