Question

Mr. Moore is installing new work benches in the wood shop. He wants the height of the benches to be best for students standing and working on projects. He decides to use the mean height of the students in the school as a guide. The school has 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students. Rather than using the heights of all the students in the school, he decides to take a sample of students.

A. Suppose Mr. Moore decides to use 20 seventh graders as the sample. Is this sample a random sample? Explain your reasoning.

B. Mr. Moore decides to use a random number generator to select 20 students from the school. Suppose that when choosing 20 students using the random generator on the graphing calculator, Mr. Moore’s sample is all eighth graders. Does that mean the sample is not a random sample? Explain your reasoning.

Answer 1

Explanation:

A. No, the sample is not random. The sampling is biased because he limits his selection to only seventh graders.

B. The sample is random. The fact that all the students selected were eighth graders is coincidence, not bias. The sampling method was still random.