Collect some quantitative data. Find the sample mean and standard deviation. Plot it in a histogram. Does the data seem to follow the bell curve of the normal distribution? What features of the data do or do not fit in with the shape of the normal curve. How much deviation from the curve is to be expected?

Now perform a normality test on your data (Shapiro-Wilk test: http://sdittami.altervista.org/shapirotest/ShapiroTest.html or http://www.brianreedpowers.com/MAT240/stats/descriptiveStats.html)- the test will give you a p-value. The higher the p-value, the more closely your data follows the normal distribution. Based on the test, do you think your data could have been drawn from a normal distribution?