Florida B.E.S.T. MA.912.DP.5.6
The Standard
Determine the appropriate design, survey, experiment or observational study, based on the purpose. Articulate the types of questions appropriate for each type of design.
Florida B.E.S.T. Standards for Mathematics
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students select a survey, experiment, or observational study that fits a research purpose. They explain which questions each method can answer and whether results show opinions, associations, or cause and effect.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students match opinion and self-report questions to surveys, relationship questions to observational studies, and cause-and-effect questions to experiments. They justify each choice using assignment, treatment, and data source.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think any study with many participants is an experiment. They may also claim causation from surveys or observational studies, or overlook bias in self-reported answers.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: A school wants to know whether later start times increase attendance. Choose a study type, outline the method, and state what conclusion is possible.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give groups study-question cards to sort under survey, experiment, or observational study, then require a written reason for each choice.
Ask: Which design best answers whether homework causes higher test scores, and what evidence would that design need?
Play Design Match by having teams pair research questions with method cards and challenge one mismatched pair each round.
Compare how a restaurant could use customer surveys, table observations, or a menu experiment to decide whether to add plant-based meals.
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Related Standards
- MA.912.DP.5
Determine methods of data collection and make inferences from collected data.
- MA.912.DP.1.1
Given a set of data, select an appropriate method to represent the data, depending on whether it is numerical or categorical data and on whether it is univariat...
- MA.6.DP.1.1
Recognize and formulate a statistical question that would generate numerical data.
- MA.912.DP.5.7
Compare and contrast surveys, experiments and observational studies.
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