The purpose of this activity is to demonstrate the difference between a sample and a population. Access the Sampling Words applet through the usual applet link ()
Activity:
- Once you open the applet, make sure to check Beyonc and Show Sampling Options
- The histogram labeled Population Data shows you the distribution of word length in Beyoncs Crazy in Love. The histogram includes all words in the song and plots each words length (number of letters) in a visual form. As you draw word samples from this song, pay attention to the blue dots that will appear on the Population Data histogram.
- Keep the default measures on Number of Samples (1) and Sample Size (10) and click Draw Samples. This will draw 1 sample of 10 words and plot the average (mean) length of those 10 words on the graphs below. What is the average length of those 10 words?
- Click Draw Samples 9 more times so you have 10 boxes displayed on the Statistic (Sample Means) histogram. Are the averages similar or different? What patterns do you see?
- Change the Number of Samples to 10 and click Draw Samples enough times to bring the Num samples on the histogram to 100. How has your histogram changed? What patterns do you notice?
- Change the Number of Samples to 100 and click Draw Samples enough times to bring the Num samples on the histogram to 1,000. How has your histogram changed now? Compare it to the Population Data histogram are they similar?
Once you complete the activity above, watch this video for some conceptual conclusions to this activity:
