Skip to content
EvidenceHelixEvidenceLib · Scientific Encyclopedia
⌘ K

Scientific library

EvidenceLib encyclopediaAll articles A–Z2,100Open textbooks35Open-access articles1,010Cancer study catalog458How it is made

My workspace this browser

Saved pages0Notes & annotations0

Recently viewed

Explore by field

Cancer and Oncology182Genetics and Genomics170Neuroscience185Cardiovascular Medicine180Immunology162Pharmacology174Molecular Biology161Infectious Diseases150Rare and Inherited Diseases181Clinical Research173Anatomy and Physiology617Drugs and Chemicals621Psychiatry and Psychology75Public Health and Nutrition64Diagnostics and Medical Technology15
Plans & pricingCompare EvidenceHelix workspace plans
Library›Open textbooks›Statistics›Data Collection Experiment

Continue where you left off ()

Explore more with EvidenceHelix Workspace

Compare studies, analyze evidence and create research reports with premium tools.

Explore Researcher plans

Statistics · Sampling and Data

Data Collection Experiment

CC BY 4.0 · OpenStax · approximately 1 min read

Learning objectives

Data Collection Experiment

    Student Learning Outcomes

  • The student will demonstrate the systematic sampling technique.
  • The student will construct relative frequency tables.
  • The student will interpret results and their differences from different data groupings.

Movie Survey

Get a class roster/list. Randomly mark a person’s name, and then mark every fourth name on the list until you get 12 names. You may have to go back to the start of the list. For each name marked, record the number of movies they saw at the theater last month.

Order the Data

Complete the two relative frequency tables below using your class data.

Frequency of Number of Movies Viewed
Number of Movies Frequency Relative Frequency Cumulative Relative Frequency
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7+
Frequency of Number of Movies Viewed
Number of Movies Frequency Relative Frequency Cumulative Relative Frequency
0–1
2–3
4–5
6–7+
  1. Using the tables, find the percent of data that is at most two. Which table did you use and why?
  2. Using the tables, find the percent of data that is at most three. Which table did you use and why?
  3. Using the tables, find the percent of data that is more than two. Which table did you use and why?
  4. Using the tables, find the percent of data that is more than three. Which table did you use and why?

    Discussion Questions

  1. Is one of the tables more correct than the other? Why or why not?
  2. In general, how could you group the data differently? Are there any advantages to either way of grouping the data?
  3. Why did you switch between tables, if you did, when answering the question above?
← Experimental Design and EthicsSampling Experiment →

Attribution. Statistics, OpenStax, Rice University, and the contributing authors credited in the book. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. Source revision 7dea80ae28 of openstax/osbooks-statistics (2026-04-23). CC BY 4.0. Original source ↗. Text edition of a pinned CC BY 4.0 source revision of the OpenStax book, converted from CNXML by the EvidenceHelix importer. Original prose, learning objectives, tables, exercises, glossary and captions are preserved; images are not copied (figures link to the original source and keep their credits). No new content was added. Later revisions of this book can carry different licence terms and are not used.

In this chapter Contents

  • Introduction
  • Definitions of Statistics, Probability, and Key Terms
  • Data, Sampling, and Variation in Data and Sampling
  • Frequency, Frequency Tables, and Levels of Measurement
  • Experimental Design and Ethics
  • Data Collection Experiment
  • Sampling Experiment

Source

OpenStax source file ↗

Illustrated original ↗

EvidenceLib is a research-education resource, not medical advice. It does not diagnose, prescribe or recommend starting, stopping or changing any treatment. Talk to a qualified clinician about your own situation. Methods, sources and licences · Rights and removal requests · Legal · Support