Case Study 4

Q1:How could Mussie and Ellie find out whether older people do more for charity than younger people?
A1:They could go on the Internet and find some information and some charity websites.
Q2:Why does Mussie think that these data prove him right? Why might Ellie think that these data do not prove him right?
A2:Mussie thinks that the data prove him right because when they looked at the numbers it shows that the amount of money donated by older people is more than the amount donated by younger people. Ellie thinks that the data do not prove him right because the data that they have is just from one charity websites and it might not be the case for all charities, the amount of money given by younger people is going up every year, while the amount given by older people is going down and it only shows the amount of money that people have given. She thinks that younger people might spend more time doing charity events.
Q3:What questions should they ask?
A3:They should ask:"Do or Did you do charity?", "Do or did you do charity work?", "How much time do you spend in charity?", "How much time do you spend in charity work?", "In what grade are you in?".
Q4:How many questionnaires should they hand out? Who do you think should fill in their questionnaire?
A4:They should hand out 100 copies of their questionnaire so they can divided half of copies to the older people and the other half  of copies to the younger people. But they could also do more copies because it's better to know other people interests.
Q5:Which software could Mussie and Ellie use to put the answers into the computer? How can they check that the data are correct? How could they reduce the number of errors in the data? What problems might be there be if the data were typed in incorrectly?
A5:They should use Microsoft Excel (spreadsheet). They can check if the data are correct with formulas so that the calculations are right. They can refuse the number of errors writing properly and carefully. They might come to the wrong conclusion when they look at the data.
Q6:What is the best way for Ellie and Mussie to present their results?
A6:The best way for Ellie and Mussie to present their results is create a report to show their results. They should use a line graph for show them, too.