Statistical Questions Worksheet
Recognize questions that anticipate variability and summarize responses. Includes a worked example, printable practice, and an answer key with explanations.
The answer key follows the practice below. In the editor, remove the final answer-key section before sharing a student copy.
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Statistical Questions Worksheet
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Learning goal and worked example
Recognize questions that anticipate variability and summarize responses.
“How many minutes did each student read yesterday?” is statistical because it asks for a collection of answers expected to differ. A question asking one fixed fact does not do that.
Review activity: explain the population, measurement, and expected variation rather than relying only on plural wording.
Read each question carefully and answer to the best of your ability. This worksheet assesses your understanding of statistical questions and data variability.
1. Which of the following is a statistical question?
How tall is the Eiffel Tower?
What is the capital of Canada?
What are the favorite colors of students in your class?
When was the Declaration of Independence signed?
2. Which question is NOT a statistical question?
How many states are in the United States?
What are the ages of the teachers at your school?
How many text messages do students in your class send each day?
What are the heights of the basketball players on the team?
Rewrite each non-statistical question as a statistical question.
3. Non-statistical question: How old is the principal?
Statistical question:
4. Non-statistical question: What is the standard boiling point of pure water at sea-level atmospheric pressure?
Statistical question:
5. Explain in your own words why a statistical question must anticipate variability in the data.
6. Provide an example of a statistical question and explain what kind of variability you would expect in the answers.
Indicate whether each statement is True or False.
7. A statistical question always has a single, definite answer.
True
False
8. The question 'What is the fixed length of your teacher’s usual route from home to school?' anticipates variability across a collection of observations.
True
False
A teacher asked her students: 'How many hours did you spend on homework last night?' The responses were: 1, 2, 0, 1.5, 2, 1, 0.5, 3, 1, 2.5
9. Draw a frequency bar graph for these responses. Label the horizontal axis Homework hours and the vertical axis Number of students. Include a bar for each value from 0 to 3 in steps of 0.5.
Answer key and worked solutions
1. c. Favorite colors vary across students. 2. a. The number of states is one fixed fact in the stated context.
3. Example: What are the ages of principals at schools in our district?
4. Example: What boiling temperatures do students measure across repeated trials with the same water and pressure? Measurement variation creates a collection of values.
5. A statistical question anticipates differences among observations and is answered using data about that variation, rather than one fixed fact.
6. Example: How long do students in our class spend reading each evening? Times differ by student and evening. Accept other questions with a defined group, measurement, and expected variability.
7. False. 8. False: the fixed length of one specified route asks for a single value.
9. Frequency bars: 0 hours → 1 student; 0.5 → 1; 1 → 3; 1.5 → 1; 2 → 2; 2.5 → 1; 3 → 1. Frequencies total 10. Label axes and use a consistent scale.
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