Overview
1-1 Discussion: Population, Samples, and BiasDiscussion Topic
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Available on Jan 5, 2026, 12:00 AM. Submission is restricted before availability starts.Possible Points: 25
In real-life applications, statistics help us analyze data to extract information about a population. In this module discussion, you will help Susan, a high school principal, work through an event at her school. She is planning on having a large movie night for the high school. She has received a lot of feedback on which movie to show and sees differences in movie preferences by gender and also by grade level.
She knows if the wrong movie is shown, it could reduce event turnout by 50%. She would like to maximize the number of students who attend and select a PG-rated film based on the overall student population's movie preferences. Each student is assigned a classroom with other students in their grade. She has a spreadsheet listing each student's name, classroom, and grade. Susan knows that a simple random sample would provide a good representation of the student population at their high school, but wonders whether a different method would be better.
You can review the student demographics here: Module One Discussion Data PDF.
In your initial discussion post, specifically address the following:
- Introduce yourself and describe a time when you used data in a personal or professional decision. This could range from analyzing sales data on the job to making an informed purchasing decision about a home or a car.
- Describe to Susan how to take a sample of the student population that would not represent the population well.
- Describe to Susan how to take a sample of the student population that would represent the population well.
- Finally, describe the relationship of a sample to a population and classify your two samples as random, systematic, cluster, stratified, or convenience.