Case Study: Polls

Let’s now switch gears to a more realistic sampling scenario than our bowl activity—a poll. In practice, pollsters don’t take 1,000 repeated samples, but rather take only a single sample that’s as large as possible.

On December 4, 2013, National Public Radio in the US reported on a poll of President Obama’s approval rating among young US citizens aged 18–29 in an article, “Poll: Support For Obama Among Young Americans Eroding.” A quote from the article stated:

“After voting for him in large numbers in 2008 and 2012, young Americans are souring on President Obama. According to a new Harvard University Institute of Politics poll, just 41 percent of millennials—adults aged 18–29—approve of Obama’s job performance, his lowest-ever standing among the group and an 11-point drop from April.”

Let’s tie elements of the real-life poll in this new article with our tactile and virtual bowl activity using the terminology, ...