Question

miranda is conducting a poll to determine how many students would attend a students - only school dance if one was held. which sample is most likely to yield a representative sample for the poll?
twenty names from each grade pulled blindly from a container filled with the names of the entire student body written on slips of paper
every tenth person walking down main street in town at different times of the day
all of the students who write into the school newspaper
every student from all of mirandas classes

Explanation:

A representative sample should be randomly selected and cover different groups (in this case, different grades).

• Option 1: Selecting twenty names from each grade randomly gives a chance for all students (across grades) to be included, which is more likely to represent the entire student body.
• Option 2: People on Main Street may not be students at all, so this sample is not relevant to the population (students) we are interested in.
• Option 3: Students who write into the school newspaper may have a particular interest (e.g., in writing or school - related communication) that is not representative of all students.
• Option 4: Students from Miranda's classes only represent one subset (those in her classes) and not the whole student body.

Answer:

twenty names from each grade pulled blindly from a container filled with the names of the entire student body written on slips of paper