MathsFreePrintable

Data Analysis Foundations

A free maths worksheet ready for your classroom. Open in Kuraplan to grab the print-ready PDF, customize it for your students, or generate a fresh version in seconds.

Download now

Name:Date:

Data Analysis Foundations

A youth centre is planning transport options for an evening event. Use the fictional survey below to investigate the data. Show working for calculations and explain what your results tell you.

The survey data

Twelve young people were asked how many minutes it usually takes them to travel to the youth centre.

Person

Minutes

Person

Minutes

Investigate and interpret

Use the survey context and values to answer each question.

1.Identify the variable measured in this survey. Is it categorical or numerical, and is it discrete or continuous? Give a brief reason for your classifications.

2.Calculate the mean travel time. Show the total and divide by the number of people surveyed.

3.Find the median travel time. Explain how you located it in the ordered data.

4.Calculate the range. What does the range tell you about the spread of travel times?

5.Which measure, the mean or median, better represents a typical travel time in this small data set? Justify your choice using a value in the data.

6.A volunteer collecting responses asks only people waiting at a bus stop near the centre. Explain one likely source of bias and how it could affect the results.

7.The centre wants to estimate travel times for all young people who might attend its events. Describe a more suitable way to select participants than asking whoever is easiest to reach.

8.The survey asks for each person's full name and home address, although neither is needed to calculate travel-time summaries. Give one privacy risk and one change that would make the survey more respectful of participants' information.

9.A planning note says, “The average journey is 22.25 minutes, so most young people can reach the centre in about 22 minutes.” What is misleading about this conclusion? Use the data summaries to suggest a more careful statement.

10.The centre can provide transport support for some attendees. Name one additional variable it could collect to help make a fair decision, and explain how that information could be useful.