Skip to main content
HHMI BioInteractive
  • Español
  • Site Search
  • Log In/Create Account
  • BioInteractive Resources
  • Planning Tools
  • Professional Development
  • About Us

Sampling and Normal Distribution

Start Interactive
Image from the activity

Topic

  • Scientific Skills & Literacy
  • Visual & Physical Models
  • Math & Computational Skills
  • Graph Interpretation
  • Statistics

Resource Type

  • Interactive Media
  • Click & Learn

Level

High School — GeneralHigh School — AP/IBCollege
Saved By
38 Users
Share This
Embed

Code to embed this content

Close Modal
Copy to clipboard

Copy and paste this HTML into your webpage or LMS to embed a running copy of this interactive. Use the "View HTML Editor" option in your LMS to paste the HTML into a page.

Close Modal

Description

This interactive simulation allows students to graph and analyze sample distributions taken from a normally distributed population.

The normal distribution, sometimes called the bell curve, is a common probability distribution in the natural world. Scientists typically assume that a series of measurements taken from a population will be normally distributed when the sample size is large enough. In this Click & Learn, students can easily graph and explore the distributions of different samples taken from an idealized normally distributed population. Students can set the sample size, population mean, and population standard deviation, and observe how the sample distribution shifts when changing any of these variables.

The accompanying worksheet guides students’ exploration.

The “Resource Google Folder” link directs to a Google Drive folder of resource documents in the Google Docs format. Not all downloadable documents for the resource may be available in this format. The Google Drive folder is set as “View Only”; to save a copy of a document in this folder to your Google Drive, open that document, then select File → “Make a copy.” These documents can be copied, modified, and distributed online following the Terms of Use listed in the “Details” section below, including crediting BioInteractive.

Student Learning Targets

  • Explain that standard deviation is a measure of the variation of the spread of the data around the mean.
  • Explain that larger sample sizes are desirable when collecting data about a population, because they are more likely to reflect the true distribution of the population.
  • Calculate the standard error of the mean (SEM) and explain that it measures how much the mean of a sample reflects the mean of the population from which the sample was drawn.
  • Use SEM to calculate 95% confidence intervals (CIs), represent the Cls on a graph as error bars, and compare error bars to determine if there is a difference among the populations from which the samples came.

Estimated Time

Two to three 50-minute class periods.

Key Terms

average, confidence interval (CI), error bar, Gaussian distribution, histogram, measurement, population, random sample, standard deviation, standard error of the mean (SEM)

Terms of Use

The resource is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. No rights are granted to use HHMI’s or BioInteractive’s names or logos independent from this Resource or in any derivative works.

Version History

Date Published 11.20.15
Date Updated 04.17.20

NGSS (2013)

HS-LS2-1; SEP2, SEP5

AP Biology (2019)

SP1, SP2, SP3, SP4, SP5

IB Biology (2016)

C.1

AP Environmental Science (2020)

Learning Objectives & Practices: SP5, SP6

IB Environmental Systems and Societies (2017)

2.1

Common Core (2010)

Common Core (2010) ELA.RST.9-12.7, ELA.WHST.9-12.1
Math.A-REI.6, Math.N-Q.1, Math.F-IF.7, Math.S-ID.4, Math.S-ID.7; MP2, MP4

Vision and Change (2009)

CC5; DP2, DP3

Materials

Resource Google Folder (link)
Student Worksheet (PDF) 595 KB
Educator Materials (PDF) 1 MB

Explore Related Content

Other Related Resources

Showing of
Data Explorer text on a background of charts and graphs
Tools
Data Explorer
Image from the activity
Lessons
Diet and the Evolution of Salivary Amylase
Photo of a lionfish
Click & Learn
Lionfish Invasion: Density-Dependent Population Dynamics
interface image of the population dynamics interactive
Click & Learn
Population Dynamics
Lemming graph from the paper
Data Points
Predator-Prey Relationship Dynamics
Graph from the activity
Data Points
Modeling Ecosystem Effects of Termite Mound Patterns
Extinction probability graph from the activity
Data Points
White-Nose Syndrome in Bat Populations
Image from the activity
Lessons
Spreadsheet Tutorial 4: t-Test
Image from the activity
Lessons
Spreadsheet Tutorial 5: Histogram
Image from the interactive
Click & Learn
How to Analyze DNA Microarray Data
HHMI BioInteractive
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Newsletter Signup
  • HHMI.org
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Accessibility