Lesson 3: Who You Ask Matters

About 30 minutes — Discussion-based lesson

What You Will Learn

This lesson covers:

What a sample is: the group of people you ask
Why asking only your friends gives different results than asking everyone
The idea of a representative sample
Why sample size matters: asking 3 people vs. asking 30

What a sample is: the group of people you ask

This section covers the key ideas about what a sample is: the group of people you ask. Discuss with your group or family and explore the concepts together.

Why asking only your friends gives different results than asking everyone

This section covers the key ideas about why asking only your friends gives different results than asking everyone. Discuss with your group or family and explore the concepts together.

The idea of a representative sample

This section covers the key ideas about the idea of a representative sample. Discuss with your group or family and explore the concepts together.

Why sample size matters: asking 3 people vs. asking 30

This section covers the key ideas about why sample size matters: asking 3 people vs. asking 30. Discuss with your group or family and explore the concepts together.

Check Your Understanding

1. What is a sample?

Answer: A sample is the group of people you actually ask or observe. You usually cannot ask everyone, so you pick a sample and hope it represents the whole group.

2. Why does it matter who you ask?

Answer: Because different groups have different experiences. If you only survey kids who play soccer, your data about 'favorite sport' will be biased toward soccer.

3. What is a representative sample?

Answer: A sample that looks like the whole group. If your school is half boys and half girls, a representative sample should include both. If you only ask one group, your results may not apply to everyone.

4. Why is asking 30 people better than asking 3?

Answer: More people means more reliable results. If you ask 3 people their favorite color and 2 say blue, it seems like blue is very popular. But ask 30 and the results might be very different.

Key Takeaways

What a sample is: the group of people you ask
Why asking only your friends gives different results than asking everyone
The idea of a representative sample
Why sample size matters: asking 3 people vs. asking 30

Ready for More?

Next Lesson

Continue to Lesson 4: Your Data Question

Start Lesson 4

Session Home

Review all lessons and materials.

Back to Session Home