The Common Core State Standards addressed in this unit are listed below.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSS.IC.A.1 Understand statistics as a process for making inferences about population parameters based on a random sample from that population.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSS.IC.B.4 Use data from a sample survey to estimate a population mean or proportion.
In this unit, AP Statistics students will use an appropriate random sampling method to select participants for a survey regarding gene-editing technology. Using confidence intervals, students will estimate the proportion of individuals in the population who feel a specific way about an aspect of the technology. By conducting hypothesis tests such as the z-test for a difference of proportions or chi-square test of independence, students will determine whether their survey sample statistics are significantly different from population parameters.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSS.ID.B.5 Summarize categorical data for two categories in two-way frequency tables. Interpret relative frequencies in the context of the data (including joint, marginal, and conditional relative frequencies). Recognize possible associations and trends in the data.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSS.CP.A.4 Construct and interpret two-way frequency tables of data when two categories are associated with each object being classified. Use the two-way table as a sample space to decide if events are independent and to approximate conditional probabilities.
Students will meet the above two standards by organizing their survey data into two-way frequency tables. By creating these contingency tables, students will be able to compute conditional probabilities to determine whether one’s opinion regarding an aspect of gene-editing is associated with a specific demographic variable.
