Asking a question the data can answer

Name:

Date:

Class:

Quick Questions

Shade in the A or B circle for each question.

1. Which is a question the data can answer?

A How many students in Year 7 are in the Red house?

B Which house has the nicest students?

2. Which question is a 'how much' question?

A Is the canteen a fun place to visit?

B How much money did the canteen make from Tech items?

3. Which question is about what changed?

A Did Mia's mark go up or down between Term 1 and Term 2?

B What is Mia's favourite subject?

4. Which question is about a trend over time?

A Did the daily rainfall go up across the week?

B Which day is the best day of the week?

5. You want to ask 'Which day was the hottest?' Which columns do you need?

A A Name column and a Price column

B A Day column and a Max temperature column

Match the Pairs

Draw a line connecting each item on the left to its match on the right.

Left column		Right column
1How many students are in each house?		AThe question is vague and opinion-based, so numbers cannot answer it. Ask 'What was the highest Max temperature this week?' instead.
2How did daily rainfall change from Mon to Sun?		BA 'how many' question answered by counting rows in the data
3A 'how much' question can be answered by adding up a number column		CThe data has no column about humour, so it cannot answer this. Ask 'Which student had the highest Maths mark?' instead.
4Check the data has the columns you need before you start		DQuestion: Which day was hottest? Needs: Day and Max columns
5Is the weather nice? (data: Day, Max, Min, Rain)		EA trend over time question answered by comparing values across days
6Which student is the funniest? (data: Name, Maths, English, Science)		FHow much money did the shop make? =SUM(C2:C9)

Definitions

data question

Fill in the Blanks

Complete each line of code by filling in the missing parts.

Q: How many students scored over 80 in Maths? =_______(B2:B9,">80")

Q: How much stock do Tech items have in total? =_____(B2:B9,"Tech",D2:D9)

Q: What changed in Max from Mon to Wed? =B4_B2

Q: Is Max rising or falling over the week? =IF(B8_B2,"Rising","Falling")

Q: How many columns have a heading? =______(A1:D1)

Spot the Error

Shade in the letter of the line that contains an error.

Question 1

A Q: How many items were sold?

B Needs: Item, Qty

C Formula: =AVERAGE(D2:D9)

Question 2

A Q: Did the rain change by day?

B Needs: Day, Rain

C Chart: pie of Rain by Day

Question 3

A Q: How much stock do we have?

B Sheet: shop

C Needs: Item, Qty

D Formula: =SUM(C2:C9)

Question 4

A Sheet: weather

B Q: Was Friday's rain annoying?

C Needs: Day, Rain

D =COUNTIF(D2:D8,">0")

Question 5

A Q: Is Maths a fun subject?

B Needs: Name, Maths

C =AVERAGE(B2:B9)

Answer Key

Asking a question the data can answer

Section A: Quick Questions

A — How many students in Year 7 are in the Red house?

B — How much money did the canteen make from Tech items?

A — Did Mia's mark go up or down between Term 1 and Term 2?

A — Did the daily rainfall go up across the week?

B — A Day column and a Max temperature column

Section B: Match the Pairs

How many students are in each house? → A 'how many' question answered by counting rows in the data

How did daily rainfall change from Mon to Sun? → A trend over time question answered by comparing values across days

A 'how much' question can be answered by adding up a number column → How much money did the shop make? =SUM(C2:C9)

Check the data has the columns you need before you start → Question: Which day was hottest? Needs: Day and Max columns

Is the weather nice? (data: Day, Max, Min, Rain) → The question is vague and opinion-based, so numbers cannot answer it. Ask 'What was the highest Max temperature this week?' instead.

Which student is the funniest? (data: Name, Maths, English, Science) → The data has no column about humour, so it cannot answer this. Ask 'Which student had the highest Maths mark?' instead.

Section C: Definitions

data question — A clear question that can be answered with numbers you can collect or already have, such as how many, how much or what changed over time.

Section D: Fill in the Blanks

Q: How many students scored over 80 in Maths?
=COUNTIF(B2:B9,">80")

Q: How much stock do Tech items have in
total?
=SUMIF(B2:B9,"Tech",D2:D9)

Q: What changed in Max from Mon to Wed?
=B4-B2

Q: Is Max rising or falling over the week?
=IF(B8>B2,"Rising","Falling")

Q: How many columns have a heading?
=COUNTA(A1:D1)

Section E: Spot the Error

C — A 'how many sold' question needs a total, so use SUM. AVERAGE gives the typical quantity, not how many were sold in all.

C — A question about change over time is best shown with a line chart. A pie chart shows parts of a whole, not a trend, so it should be 'Chart: line of Rain by Day'.

D — Column C holds Price, but the question is about stock, which is in the Qty column D. The formula should be =SUM(D2:D9).

B — 'Annoying' is an opinion, so numbers can't answer it. A data question should be about counting or measuring, like 'How many days had rain?'.

A — 'Fun' is an opinion and can't be answered with numbers in the data. The question should be about a number, such as 'What is the Maths average?'.