CC2 8-41 Student eTool

Part (a): Think about how you can take a random sample from the population of robins shown by the orange dots at right. What things would be important to do? Discuss this with your team.

Part (b): Now take a random sample of 10 robins and drag them to the cage. Once in the cage, the weight of each robin will be shown. Each member of your team should do the same thing with their own random sample.

Part (c): Calculate the mean of your sample on the line below. Do you think that your mean is representative of the population? What inferences can you make about the population from your sample?

Part (d): Compare your estimate of the population mean to the means of the other students in your team. Is your mean the true average weight for all American robins in town? Are any of your teammates’ numbers the true average? How can you explain any differences between the means?