Example 3

To encourage as many students as possible to dress up for the final day of Spirit Week, the student council is giving away raffle prizes donated by local businesses. Every student who dresses up will get a free raffle ticket. Council members will gather data on how many students participate on the last day of Spirit Week, and compare that information with the data they have gathered from their observational study on dress-up participation for the other days of Spirit Week. What method of data gathering will most closely match what the student council is trying to accomplish with the raffle prizes?
  1. Evaluate the situation described in the problem scenario to determine the purpose and characteristics of the required data.
  2. Determine which method of data collection best matches the situation.
This applet is provided by Walch Education as supplemental material for their mathematics programs. Visit www.walch.com for more information.