Determine whether you would take a census or use a sampling. I...

Question

Determine whether you would take a census or use a sampling. If you would use a sampling, determine which sampling technique you would use. Explain.

The average distance traveled to a stadium by 55,000 spectators

Accepted Answer

Welcome back, everyone. In this problem, a school district wants to estimate the average number of books read per year by its 15,000 students. Should the district conduct a census or use a sampling method? If sampling is chosen, which technique is most appropriate and why? A says a census because it is cost effective for large groups. B stratified sampling because it ensures all grade levels are included. convenience sampling because it is the most precise and D a census because it is less time consuming. No Essentially, let's first figure out if we should use a sensors or a sampling method. What's the difference between both of these? Well, recall that a census, OK, is best for smaller populations, OK? Because in this case, we'll be able to accurately reach everyone and it will, it won't put a strain on our resources. On the other hand, sampling is best for larger populations. In the case where we can't really effectively reach everyone, if it's going to take too much. So really then the difference between sensors and sampling comes down to our population size. How many people are we talking about here? Well, in this problem we're told that the school district has 15,000 students. If we think about it, as census, it would involve collecting data from all 15,000 students, and that might be time consuming and costly. That means that sampling is more practical in this scenario and can provide accurate estimates if done correctly. So we know that we're going to go with the sampling method. But now, look at the second part of our question. Which technique would be most appropriate? In other words, which sampling method are we going to use? Noticing our problems or answer choices, sorry, we're given two options, stratified and convenient sampling. What's the difference between both of those? Well, recall that stratified sampling and stratified sampling. Divides the population, OK. Into groups OK. While convenient sampling. Convenient sampling. OK. Selects those easiest to reach. Selects those easiest to reach. So now we think about it here for a stratified sampling. That means we would be dividing our 15,000 students into different groups such as grade levels and taking samples from each. That would ensure all groups are represented. On the other hand, inconvenience sampling, it could introduce bias and it won't be precise. OK, it does not guarantee a representative sample. For example, we could go to a school that has poorer performance than others, and that would not be an accurate representation of all the schools in the district. Therefore, stratified sampling would be best because it ensures all grade levels are included, making the results more representative. B is the correct answer. Thanks a lot for watching everyone. I hope this video helped.

Determine whether you would take a census or use a sampling. If you would use a sampling, determine which sampling technique you would use. Explain.
The average distance traveled to a stadium by 55,000 spectators

Key Concepts

Census vs. Sampling

Sampling Techniques

Representativeness

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