Statistical Questions
Tell a statistical question from one with a single fixed answer: a statistical question anticipates variability ('How tall are the students in my class?' rather than 'How tall am I?') and is answered by collecting many values
What a learner can do afterwards
- Sort questions into statistical and non-statistical, explaining that the statistical ones expect varied answers
- Rewrite a fixed-answer question as a statistical one (e.g., turn 'How old is my teacher?' into 'How old are the teachers at my school?')
- Pose a statistical question about their class and describe what data they would collect to answer it
The lesson
Some questions have one exact answer. Ask 'How old are you?' and there is only one number that answers it: your age. Other questions expect many different answers, because people are different. Ask 'How old are the students in my class?' and you get a whole range of ages back. Questions like that are called statistical questions, because answering them means collecting data from many people, not just one.
Maya's teacher gives her two questions: 'How old is Maya?' and 'How old are the students in Maya's class?' The first has one exact answer, Maya's own age. The second sends Maya around the room asking every student, and the ages come back different every time. Only the second question is statistical.
To check if a question is statistical, ask yourself: will everyone answer the same way, or will the answers spread out? If they spread out, you're looking at a statistical question.
A statistical question expects different answers from different people, so you answer it by collecting many values, not just one.
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