Right menu

Featured resource


Home > Topdrawer > Statistics > Good teaching > Making informal inferences

Default object view. Click to create a custom template, Node ID: 13205, Object ID: 20886

Making informal inferences

Making informal inferences

Informal inference arises when students use the sets of data they have collected to make claims about a wider population.

Informal inference relies on students' understanding of the:

  • relationship of samples and populations
  • importance of creating the most appropriate representation of the data
  • measures that will best summarise the data set.

The evidence collected from this process is used to make a claim for the wider population within the context. Because the population is not completely known, the claim cannot be made with absolute certainty. Over time, students develop intuitions about the degree of certainty they can place on their conclusions. For some contexts this intuition about uncertainty may be assisted by box plots which are introduced in year 10.

Examples of contexts for carrying out informal inference can be found in the article Building Informal Inference with TinkerPlots in a Measurement Context.

Yes

Yes

Name Class Section
Document Single measurement variables Folder 17
Document Comparing two populations Folder 17
Document Year 10: Construct and interpret box plots and use them to compare data sets Infobox 3
Document Year 9: Compare data displays using mean, median and range to describe and interpret numerical data sets in terms of location (centre) and spread Infobox 3
Document Year 8: Explore the practicalities and implications of obtaining data through sampling using a variety of investigative processes Infobox 3
Document Source Infobox 3