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Unit 2 · Standard 6.DS.1

Understand Statistical Questions

Lesson 2-1 · Learn It — how the math works

Why we're learning this

You've just been hired as the data analyst for a youth basketball league. The head coach hands you a list of questions the staff wants to investigate about their players. Some questions will give you interesting data with variety, while others have just one fixed answer. Your job: figure out which questions are worth investigating with data. Two of the coach's questions are: "How tall is our point guard?" and "How tall is each player on the roster?"

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What makes a question a statistical question?

A statistical question is one you answer by collecting data, and the answers are different for different people or cases. A non-statistical question has just one fixed answer.

Picture itSee what the math looks like before you read about it

Five national park photographs are lined up on the board before you clock in as today's basketball data analyst. All kinds of questions could be asked about these parks.
Where you see this in real lifeFive national park photographs are lined up on the board before you clock in as today's basketball data analyst. All kinds of questions could be asked about these parks.

Watch me solve itI do — read one step at a time

The problem looks like this
Dot plot of the answers to Question 2: 8, 12, 12, 15, 18, 20 and 22 points. The dots are spread out, so the answers vary.8910111213141516171819202122Points per game
  1. Question 1: "How many points did our top player score last night?" There is one player and one game, so there is one fixed answer, like 18 points.
  2. One answer, no variety, so this is NOT a .
  3. Question 2: "How many points does each player score per game?" The answers vary: 8, 12, 12, 15, 18, 20, 22.
  4. Because the answers are different for different players, I must collect . This IS a .

Watch out — mistakes students make here

  • One fixed time isn't statistical — look for varying answers.
  • Sports is a topic—what specific part makes this statistical?
  • Numbers can appear in fixed-answer questions too—why is this different?

Try it with meWe do — you answer first, then check

Same steps, new numbers.

  1. New question: "How many pets does each student in our class have?" Will every student give the same answer, or different answers?
  2. Some students have 0 pets and others have 2 or 3, so the answers vary. Is this statistical or not statistical?
  3. Now a different question: "How many days are in one week?" Does this have one fixed answer or many?

On your ownYou do — solve this one by yourself

Before you start, remember:

  • For each one, ask yourself: will the answers be different, or always the same?

Solve: A coach asks: "How many hours does each athlete on the track team sleep the night before a meet?" Why is this a ?

My answer

Stuck? Open one hint at a time.

Hint 1

Notice the words 'each athlete' — the coach plans to collect one number from every runner on the team.

Hint 2

Ask: will all athletes report the same hours of sleep? What we call it when collected answers differ is the key to this question.

Hint 3

Imagine the coach's list: 8, 6.5, 9, 7 hours from different athletes. The first step is naming what a changing list like that shows.

Check my answer
✅ Answer: Because the answers will vary from athlete to athlete
A statistical question anticipates variability. Different athletes sleep different amounts, so the data collected will vary.

Turn & TalkSay it out loud with a partner

The coach asks, "How tall is our point guard?" and "How tall is each player on the roster?" Which one is a , and why?

Try starting with:

  • The question "___" is statistical because ___.La pregunta "___" es estadística porque ___.
  • The other question is not statistical because it has only ___ answer.La otra pregunta no es estadística porque tiene solo ___ respuesta.
Use these wordsstatistical questionvariabilitydatasurveyanswer