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Data Inquiry Skills

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Data Inquiry Skills

Read each scenario carefully. Give reasons where asked. For the ethics question, select every appropriate option.

Planning a Statistical Investigation

1.A researcher wants to find out whether the amount of time Year 11 students spend travelling to school is associated with how alert they feel in their first class. State the population the researcher should investigate and name two variables to measure.

2.A study aims to describe study routines across a large region. Which sample is likely to provide the most reliable estimate, assuming the students are selected fairly?

8 students from one friend group
30 students from one class
120 students selected from several schools
600 volunteers recruited from one online forum

3.A researcher wants to measure students' confidence with algebra. Which method is the most suitable?

Ask one student to guess how confident everyone is
Use the same clearly worded confidence scale with every participant
Estimate confidence from how quickly students walk
Collect comments from students' public social media profiles

4.In a study, what would make the procedure for recording daily screen time reliable? Explain briefly.

Ethics and Responsible Data Use

5.A school is surveying students about their access to the internet at home. Select all practices that are ethically appropriate.

Explain the study and obtain informed consent
Keep identifying information private and secure
Publish individual students' responses without asking
Treat the information as taonga and consider its context and impact
Make it clear that taking part is voluntary

6.In a New Zealand data investigation, what does it mean to treat data as taonga? Give one reason this approach matters.

7.A researcher asks 12 students from one sports team about their weekly exercise, then claims the results describe every teenager in Aotearoa New Zealand. Identify two problems with this claim.

Evaluating Data Quality

Survey

Participants

Collection period

18 students from one class

One afternoon

72 students selected across four schools

Four weeks

8.Use the table to compare the two exercise surveys. Which is more likely to give reliable results, and why?

9.Write three checks you could use to judge whether a questionnaire measuring students' maths confidence is valid.

10.Outline a brief investigation into factors associated with students' results in mathematics. Include the population, at least two variables, a suitable way to collect data, and one ethical safeguard.