Breakfast Break

Question: What is your favorite breakfast food?

For our first project, we decided to survey our statistics class on what their favorite
breakfast food is. We gave them three options to choose from, along with the ability to choose
their own. Our population is the statistics class of 26 students. We are looking to measure what
the individual’s favorite breakfast food is. The variable in our study would be considered a
qualitative variable because we are studying a list of items, and not numbers. It makes more
sense for our survey to use the entire population instead of a sample because we needed
everyone’s response in order to have enough information to conduct a survey.
In our survey, we did not use a sample so we did not need to take a simple random
sample. To avoid bias, we gave the population options to choose from, along with them being
able to add their own. To avoid sampling error, we did not change the options that were given,
and to avoid nonsampling error, we sent the same survey out to the entire population. We
avoided undercoverage by sending out a Google form, so all the individuals in the population
had the ability to answer our survey. We chose to do a survey because we thought it would be the
easiest method to collect data. We were also able to get all of our data back in 24 hours and if
someone was absent, then they could still answer too. We also thought that sending out a Google
form would be the easiest way to collect our data because the individuals could answer whenever
they wanted. We also did not have to worry about undercoverage because everyone had the
ability to answer. Our study did not include a control group because it is a survey. We also did
not need to include a placebo effect or a double blind study because we decided to do a survey.
There were no confidentiality or privacy concerns because our question did not include anything
very personal and because it was a study.
The data we chose to collect represents a nominal measurement because it involves
names and categories, and there is no specific way to order the data collected. In order to collect
all of our data, we typed up questions on a google survey to send out to everyone via email. The
process included us going around asking our classmates the survey question in person, but then
we realized it would be easier to send out a survey, where we knew for a fact, everyone would
get a chance to answer. During our survey, we will need to consider our classmates replying
more than once. If we did the same study again, we would survey our data differently by
restricting the number of times a person could answer. By doing this, we would not get 45
responses. This also messed up our data because we could not get accurate information. We
didn’t plan to only let our classmates vote once, so we had a lurking variable of 45 responses.
This affected our study because eggs had the most votes, which could only be one persons’
favorite, but they voted for it more than once. We did not have a confounding variable.