Math

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Use the data table below (Table 1) to answer questions 15.

Table 1 - Species of Bird in a Local Area

Species of Bird Number of Birds

Red-winged blackbird 34

American crow 31

European starling 45

Grackle 23

Blue jay 25

Cardinal 18

1. What is the best type of graph for the data set in Table 1?

2. Explain how an ornithologist (scientist who studies birds) could display the graph to make it appear that there are very few cardinals in this community of birds.

3. Using your response from number 2, construct a graph that represents your answer.

4. Explain how a scientist could represent the data to make it appear that the number of red-winged blackbirds and American crows are almost the same.

5. Using your response from number 4, construct a graph that represents your answer.

6. Construct an accurate histogram using the table below (Table 2). Be mindful of the time intervals listed.

Table 2 - Number of days spent on vacation

Days Spent on Vacation Frequency

0 5 17

6 7 6

8 9 4

10 - 11 3

7. Referring to question 6 above, what could be a potential reason why the 05 category has a much higher frequency than the other categories?

Misleading Statistics, Misleading Graphs Worksheet

Math

2013 Southwestern Advantage www.swadvantage.com

Use the data table below (Table 3) to answer questions 810.

Table 3 - Favorite School Subject

School Subject Number of Students

Math 120

Science 110

Reading 90

English 96

Other 198

8. Find the percentages of each subject in the survey of favorite school subjects.

9. Using Table 3, construct a circle graph that accurately represents the data.

10. The student body that was responsible for this study wants to use this data to convince their principal to announce the most popular school subject over the intercom. Does the principal have enough information to make such an announcement? Why or why not?

Misleading Statistics, Misleading Graphs Worksheet

Math

2013 Southwestern Advantage www.swadvantage.com

1. Bar graph

2. An easy way to do this is to make a large gap in the scale on the Y axis.

3.

4. One way to accomplish this is to make the maximum on the scale significantly higher than your largest value.

5.

Misleading Statistics, Misleading Graphs Worksheet Answers

47

42

37

32

27

22

17 Red-winged American European Grackle Blue Jay Cardinal Blackbird Crow Starling

Number of Birds

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0 Red-winged American European Grackle Blue Jay Cardinal Blackbird Crow Starling

Number of Birds

Math

2013 Southwestern Advantage www.swadvantage.com

6.

7. Since category 05 encompasses anyone who goes on vacation from 0 to 5 days, it represents a larger portion of the population than the other categories do.

8. Math19%, Science18%, Reading15%, English16%, Other32%

9.

10. The principal does not have enough information to make this announcement. The other category constitutes 32% of the students that responded to the survey. A percentage this large could influence the results.

Misleading Statistics, Misleading Graphs Worksheet Answers

18

16

14

12

10

8

6

4

2

0 05 67 89 1011

Other32%

Math19%

Science18%

Reading15%

English16%