The document presents 5 practice problems that differentiate between inferring and describing. The problems involve analyzing census data to determine education levels, surveying parents to gauge satisfaction with school counseling, identifying common blood pressure readings in a dataset, examining census data on foreign language use, and generalizing reading comprehension test results from a sample of students to an entire school district.

1. Practice Problems
Differentiating Between
Inferring Describing

2. Problem #1

3. You have been asked to examine 2010 US census
data to determine the average levels of education
attained.
Options:
• Less than high school,
• High school,
• Some college,
• Bachelors,
• Some graduate school,
• Master’s or Equivalent
• Doctorate or Equivalent
Advance the slide to see the options

4. You have been asked to examine 2010 US census
data to determine the average levels of education
attained.
Options:
• Less than high school,
• High school,
• Some college,
• Bachelors,
• Some graduate school,
• Master’s or Equivalent
• Doctorate or Equivalent
Inferring Describing
Which is it?
Advance the slide to see the answer

5. You have been asked to examine 2010 US census
data to determine the average levels of education
attained.
Options:
• Less than high school,
• High school,
• Some college,
• Bachelors,
• Some graduate school,
• Master’s or Equivalent
• Doctorate or Equivalent
Inferring Describing
Which is it?
Advance the slide to see the explanation

6. You have been asked to examine 2010 US census
data to determine the average levels of education
attained.
Options:
• Less than high school,
• High school,
• Some college,
• Bachelors,
• Some graduate school,
• Master’s or Equivalent
• Doctorate or Equivalent
Inferring Describing
Which is it?
We are dealing with everyone (a
population) in a census.
Explanation
Advance the slide to see the next problem

7. Problem #2

8. A school district superintendent South of Minneapolis wants to
determine the degree to which parents feel well-served by the
school counseling personnel across the district. You have been
asked to randomly select a sample of 100 parents and administer
to them a survey that deals with their satisfaction with school
counseling services.
Advance the slide to see the options

9. A school district superintendent South of Minneapolis wants to
determine the degree to which parents feel well-served by the
school counseling personnel across the district. You have been
asked to randomly select a sample of 100 parents and administer
to them a survey that deals with their satisfaction with school
counseling services.
Inferring Describing
Which is it?
Advance the slide to see the answer

10. A school district superintendent South of Minneapolis wants to
determine the degree to which parents feel well-served by the
school counseling personnel across the district. You have been
asked to randomly select a sample of 100 parents and administer
to them a survey that deals with their satisfaction with school
counseling services.
Inferring Describing
Which is it?
Advance the slide to see the explanation

11. A school district superintendent South of Minneapolis wants to
determine the degree to which parents feel well-served by the
school counseling personnel across the district. You have been
asked to randomly select a sample of 100 parents and administer
to them a survey that deals with their satisfaction with school
counseling services.
Inferring Describing
Which is it?
Advance the slide to the next problem
We are inferring or generalizing from a
sample of 100 parents’ to an entire school
district of parents’ opinions about district
counseling services (population) .
Explanation

12. Problem #3

13. The director of a health clinic has asked you to help her analyze
data from the results of patient systolic blood pressure readings.
Before you begin your analysis, you decide to find out which are
the most common scores from just her data set of only 15
people.
Advance the slide to see the options
Patients Systolic Blood Pressure
1 75
2 85
3 85
4 95
5 95
6 97
7 97
8 97
9 102
10 102
11 102
12 102
13 110
14 115
15 115

14. The director of a health clinic has asked you to help her analyze
data from the results of patient systolic blood pressure readings.
Before you begin your analysis, you decide to find out which are
the most common scores from just her data set of only 15
people.
Inferring Describing
Which is it?
Advance the slide to see the answer
Patients Systolic Blood Pressure
1 75
2 85
3 85
4 95
5 95
6 97
7 97
8 97
9 102
10 102
11 102
12 102
13 110
14 115
15 115

15. The director of a health clinic has asked you to help her analyze
data from the results of patient systolic blood pressure readings.
Before you begin your analysis, you decide to find out which are
the most common scores from just her data set of only 15
people.
Inferring Describing
Which is it?
Advance the slide to see the answer
Patients Systolic Blood Pressure
1 75
2 85
3 85
4 95
5 95
6 97
7 97
8 97
9 102
10 102
11 102
12 102
13 110
14 115
15 115

16. The director of a health clinic has asked you to help her analyze
data from the results of patient systolic blood pressure readings.
Before you begin your analysis, you decide to find out which are
the most common scores from just her data set of only 15
people.
Inferring Describing
Which is it?
Advance the slide to the next problem
Patients Systolic Blood Pressure
1 75
2 85
3 85
4 95
5 95
6 97
7 97
8 97
9 102
10 102
11 102
12 102
13 110
14 115
15 115
We are analyzing data from just these 15
people for now. Therefore we are
DESCRIBING. When we attempt to
generalize from this 15 to a larger
population, then we will INFER.
Explanation

17. Problem #4

18. You have been asked to examine 2010 Utah census
data to determine the average number of person’s
per household that speak a foreign language.
Advance the slide to see the options

19. Inferring Describing
Which is it?
Advance the slide to see the answer
You have been asked to examine 2010 Utah census
data to determine the average number of person’s
per household that speak a foreign language.

20. Inferring Describing
Which is it?
Advance the slide to see the explanation
You have been asked to examine 2010 Utah census
data to determine the average number of person’s
per household that speak a foreign language.

21. You have been asked to examine 2010 Utah census
data to determine the average number of person’s
per household that speak foreign language.
Inferring Describing
Which is it?
We are dealing with everyone (a
population) in a census.
Explanation
Advance the slide to see the next problem

22. Problem #5

23. A software developer wants to determine if his
software helps children achieve significant gains in their
reading comprehension. You randomly select a sample
of 40 fifth grade children in the Alpine District and test
their reading comprehension before and after using the
software. You wish to generalize the results to all fifth
graders in the school district.
Advance the slide to see the options

24. Inferring Describing
Which is it?
Advance the slide to see the answer
A software developer wants to determine if his
software helps children achieve significant gains in their
reading comprehension. You randomly select a sample
of 40 fifth grade children in the Alpine District and test
their reading comprehension before and after using the
software. You wish to generalize the results to all fifth
graders in the school district.

25. Advance the slide to see the explanation
A software developer wants to determine if his
software helps children achieve significant gains in their
reading comprehension. You randomly select a sample
of 40 fifth grade children in the Alpine District and test
their reading comprehension before and after using the
software. You wish to generalize the results to all fifth
graders in the school district.
Inferring Describing
Which is it?

26. A software developer wants to determine if his
software helps children achieve significant gains in their
reading comprehension. You randomly select a sample
of 40 fifth grade children in the Alpine District and test
their reading comprehension before and after using the
software. You wish to generalize the results to all fifth
graders in the school district.
Inferring Describing
Which is it?
We are inferring or generalizing
from a sample of fifth graders’
to an entire school district of
fifth graders’ reading
comprehension growth
(population).
Explanation
Advance the slide to see the next problem