1. There is only one street into/out of the subdivision. The president is thinking that he can pay his teenage daughter to stand at the stop light at the entrance to the Peaceful Valley next week between the hours of 7 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. and hand out questionnaires to exiting drivers in their cars while they wait for the red light to change. The handouts would include addressed, postage-paid envelopes for returns. Identify what sample method the president would be using, list its pros and cons, and indicate how representative a sample would result.
2. The chairperson of the Suburb Steering Committee thinks the 1000 homeowners whose houses are on the waterfront properties of Peaceful Lake are the best ones to survey because they paid more for their lots; their houses are bigger, and they tend to have lived in Peaceful Valley longer than other residents. If these 1000 homeowners are used for the sample, what sample method would be involved, what are its pros and cons, and how representative a sample would result?
3. Assume that the Steering Committee chairperson’s point that the 1000 waterfront owners are not the same as the 5000 other Peaceful Valley Subdivision homeowners is true. How should this fact be utilized to draw a representative sample of the entire subdivision? Identify the probability sampling method that is most appropriate, and indicate, step-by-step, how it should be applied here.
4. How would you select a simple random sample of those Peaceful Valley homeowners who paid their subdivision association dues last year? What, if any, sample bias, might result from this approach?
5. How could a two-step cluster sample be used here? Identify this sample method and describe how it could be used here to select a representative sample of Peaceful Valley households?