discussion Math 3 : My Essay Gram

Complete your Week 3 required discussion prompts. You must complete:

• Discussion Prompt 1

Using survey data to calculate statistics can be extremely valuable, but you must also make sure that the sample and questions are unbiased. Design a pair of questions that are related to the same healthcare issue: one that is unbiased and another that would result in a bias in one direction or the other.  

 Examples:

1. Do you think that the rate of type II diabetes diagnoses will increase over the next 10 years?
2. Given the large increase in childhood obesity in the United States, do you think that type II diabetes diagnoses will increase over the next 10 years?

Discuss why it is important to create a truly unbiased sample and survey questions. Then, look at your classmates’ examples and comment on how their examples do or do not create a bias. Do not state which of your own questions is biased and which is unbiased. Your peers will determine which is which in their responses to you. 

• Discussion Prompt 2

1. Find a statistic that is expected to be normally distributed (e.g. height of adult men).
2. Sample 30 people regarding their value related to this statistic (e.g. ask them “How tall are you?”) and record your results. 
   1. Sampling 30 people is not optional. You must have at least 30 values of the statistic you choose. Use StatCrunch to create a histogram of your results.
3. Post the question you asked and the histogram you created. 
4. Are your results normally distributed?  Why or why not?

You can view a video here for directions on how to create the histogram using StatCrunch.  Or, see Chapter 2 p. 54 for directions for creating a histogram in StatCrunch.