1. The price is £4.50. Ben and Katie based their initial question on this price, asking people if they would be prepared to spend more than £4.50 for a roller-coaster ride. Through their pilot survey they soon found that this question didn’t give a very full picture of the situation they were investigating. Students could discuss how best to set up a trial. They could also discuss the problems with the question that are identified by the presenters.

2. Ben chooses to ask people who are getting off a roller-coaster. Afterwards he feels this might not have been a sensible choice. Ben recorded 14 ‘yes’ and 6 ‘no’ responses. Katie recorded 8 ‘yes’ and 12 ‘no’ responses. Bias in sampling could be discussed here. Can students suggest other situations like the example Ben gave of asking peoples’ opinions about vegetarian sausages outside a butcher’s shop?

3. Katie uses a tally chart to record her results. You could discuss the advantages of this method.

4. The data-capture sheet allows both the person’s age and the price they would be willing to pay to be recorded. The age classes were 5—14, 15—24, and so on. The price classes were £0.00—£2.99, £3.00—£5.99, and so on. You could discuss the need to ensure that classes don’t overlap and that they represent all possibilities. What other classes could have been chosen? What are the advantages and disadvantages of different class sizes? What other types of data can be classified in this way?

5. David Whitelam suggested that 1,000 people would be a representative sample. You could discuss the need to achieve a balance between using a larger sample and conducting a manageable survey. For the BMRB, the constraints on size are mainly associated with cost and methods of sampling. What constraints do students expect to encounter? What features would a representative sample of the general population display (for example, spread of ages)?

6. In addition to telephone sampling, David mentioned conducting interviews in the street, in people’s homes and over the Internet. Students could consider the kinds of questionnaire that would be appropriate in each of these situations.

7. The possible answers are: ‘sometimes’, ‘occasionally’, ‘never’. Katie suggests ‘more than once a month’, ‘less than once a month’ and ‘never’ as an alternative set of options. What other alternatives can students suggest? What other words, like ‘often’, can mean different things to different people?

8. All three people asked agree that exercise is good for you. You could explore the nature of bias and suggestion. Can students think of some other questions that are ‘leading’? You could also discuss the other questions asked in this section: ‘What do you think of cars?’ and ‘When did you last visit the cinema?’

9. The most popular top price was £5, stated by 129 people. The mean top price given by those who wanted to go on a roller-coaster was £9.80. Students could consider in more detail David’s recommendation that a price of £5 would generate more paying customers. They could also think about why the mean is calculated only from those respondents who expressed interest in taking a ride.

10. The most popular ride is called ‘The Big One’.

Worksheet 2: Tick or Trash

Comments on each of the questions are suggested below. However, students may well disagree with some of these. As an additional activity, students could discuss the types of information that would be generated by each question (qualitative, quantitative and so on), and possible ways to analyse the results.

1. The question is clear and would elicit a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response; but it does not give much information. How could it be amended to cover types of pet or number of pets owned?

2. A multiple response to this question is quite likely, since people do not always vote for the same party. The question should focus on a single event. For example: ‘Which party are you most likely to vote for in next week’s general election?’

3. This is a leading question, inviting agreement. It also contains two concepts: ‘cruel’ and ‘unnecessary’. An alternative might be: ‘Would you knowingly use a beauty product that had been tested on animals?’ Or: ‘When buying beauty products, would you check whether they were tested on animals?’ A complex issue like this probably needs several questions and quite sophisticated analysis.

4. This question would invite multiple answers from people who shop in several places, although whether this was a problem would depend on the aim of the survey. It is also not specific enough, since the term ‘supermarket’ is not well-defined. This could be overcome by offering a selection of major supermarkets to choose from, including a category like ‘other — please state’.

5. The question is too vague; and the term ‘GM’ is not defined and may not be familiar to everyone. The question would produce a broad range of verbal responses that would be difficult to categorise or analyse. One alternative approach would be to identify some of the issues surrounding genetically modified food and seek people’s views on these.

6. The question would not discriminate between people who play twice a week, once a month, and so on. Students could suggest options for capturing this information.

7. The question would be suitable provided the sample population is drawn only from people who buy nappies. Would this be feasible? Alternatively, a category of ‘none’ could be added.

8. The question is too personal. It might be more acceptable to ask something like: ‘How often would you recommend that people brush their teeth?’

9. The question would elicit a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response, but its usefulness would depend on the aim of the survey. For example, if you were interested in the effect of the BSE crisis on people’s attitudes to beef then you would need to take into account other reasons for avoiding beef, such as vegetarianism.

10. The age of the child is normally a factor in determining pocket money, so the question should include this in some way. The suggested classes do not cover all possible amounts, such as £2.50. Can students suggest more appropriate classes?

11. Many lists have recently been compiled using this sort of question. The sample must be sufficiently large to produce a meaningful result. Is the word ‘band’ specific enough? Can students suggest an alternative?

12. The question is clear and the categories should work, although a trial may reveal unforeseen problems!