Question

a student council president wants to learn about the preferred theme for the upcoming spring dance. select all the samples that are representative of the population.

• all students at her lunch table
• every fifteenth student who enters the school in the morning
• all students on her bus
• every ninth student from an alphabetical list of students
• all seventh graders

Explanation:

Identify the target population and criteria for representative samples

The target population is all students in the school who would attend the spring dance. A representative sample must be unbiased, giving every student in the population an equal chance of being selected.

Evaluate each sampling method for bias

• All students at her lunch table: Biased. This is a convenience sample of friends or peers who likely share similar preferences.
• Every fifteenth student who enters the school in the morning: Representative. This systematic random sampling method captures a diverse cross-section of the entire student body entering the school.
• All students on her bus: Biased. This is a convenience sample limited only to students living in a specific geographic area who ride that bus.
• Every ninth student from an alphabetical list of students: Representative. This systematic random sampling method uses a complete, unbiased list of the entire population.
• All seventh graders: Biased. This excludes students from other grade levels (e.g., sixth and eighth graders) who are also part of the school population.

Select the unbiased, representative options

The representative samples are:

1. "Every fifteenth student who enters the school in the morning"
2. "Every ninth student from an alphabetical list of students"

Answer:

• All students at her lunch table
• Every fifteenth student who enters the school in the morning (Correct answer)
• All students on her bus
• Every ninth student from an alphabetical list of students (Correct answer)
• All seventh graders