Year 8: Statistics Data

In year 8 we have been given a project to do. Our project was to create a research question that is able to make a quantitative data, and afterwards write a report about our investigations. In this project I have decided to create a survey in order to find out what is the most popular instrument played by Year 8 students without counting the ARTS cycle that we have (music). Hypothesis: I predict that piano would be the most popular instrument. This is because I know a lot of Y8 students who knows how to play a piano and some students in purple house has proven it by creating a performance using piano in the MYP music cycle. My research question: What is the most popular instrument played by Year 8 students (not counting the ARTS cycle) ? The AOI that I chose was Human Ingenuity, the reason I chose it because music is actually a kind of creativity. You can compose music with different types of instrument in order to create different types of songs for different type of things such as dancing, poem, etc. To answer my research question I created a table for my whole class (8E=22 students) and an online survey for the rest of the Year 8 students which I got 33 responses in total. So basically altogether I have 59 responses including the none column (people that dont play an instrument). Here are the results: Online Survey Result:

Whole Data: (From the whole year 8 **some people didnt take the online

survey)
Type of instrument Piano Violin Guitar Drums Saxophone None
Number of students

No. of students 23 3 10 3 1 19 59

Results in graph:

This is a bar

graph to represent my data. From this data we can see that: -Piano is the most popular instrument that is played/learnt by Year 8 students -The total amount of students that play/learn a specific type of instrument. Calculations (range and average): Mean:

= = 9.8
Median: I am not able to find the median from my data because my data is in different categories and not in measurement so my data is a discrete quantitative data. Since its in different category I am not able to create a frequency table too. Mode: 23The mode tells me that the most popular instrument is piano. Range: 23-1= 22The range tells me that my data is actually spread wide apart and not

bunched together because (59 my sample/2=29.5) by doing this shows me in a clearer way if my range is big or small. The difference between 22 and 29.5 is actually close together so my range is considered quite big.
Summary of averages and range: Mean 9.8 Median Mode 23 Range 22

I thought that my method on collecting the data was successful it was quick and easy which gives me time to work on my report. I know that I have collected enough appropriate data because I passed the minimum response which was 40. From my opinion I think that the bar graph was the most useful one because it clearly shows the amount of students playing a specific instruments categorized under the x-axis. They were variety of other graphs that I couldve used like

the pie chart so I would be able to see the different sizes of chunks. I couldve also used the scatter graph but it wouldnt show anything since scatter graph usually works best if you measuring stuffs (time). The mode is the most useful to answer my research question because since I my research question was to find the most popular instrument the mode is able to show which instruments were played/learnt by the most students. I think my data is not as reliable because since I did an online survey Im not sure whether the students are telling the truth or not, which is one of the limitations. To collect my data in a more meaningful way next time I think that I should get survey people in a physical way so I can able to get the whole Year 8 to respond and to also get more reliable responses. My data is useful by showing how creative Year 8 students are. This is able to help the Year 8 teachers (Mr David) to plan out some creative activities for Y8 students. Since my topic is basically in the category music it would be really useful for the music department teachers. For example, as I mentioned my mode was piano; the music department can create a unit that involves piano in it, since most of the students know how to play it. Conclusion The answer to my research question is piano. I know this by looking at the length of the bar in my graph and the mode. If I could do this project again I would like to change my question into a continuous quantitative data, so I would be able to find the median. A question that I could maybe do is Can girls chew Mentos faster than boys? From my opinion I think this would be a good choice to do because I dont think anyone in Y8 is allergic to Mentos and its cheap too consume. Another reason that I want to do this because from my opinion the students in Y8 will also enjoy my experiment since I think most of us likes sweets. Overall, I really enjoyed this project, and I thought that my time management skill was well organized because I had enough time to write and not rush through my report.