For a biology project, a student wants to research whether the ice at her local coffee shop is clean and free from impurities. She decides to test 15 ice samples from randomly selected coffee drinks. Determine whether her sample is an appropriate, random sample and a good representation of the population.

Question

Option #1: Yes, her sample is an appropriate, random sample. It is a good representation of the population.

Option #2: No, her sample is not an appropriate, random sample. It does not represent the whole population.

Answer 1

Option #2: No, her sample is not an appropriate, random sample. It does not represent the whole population.

The reason for this is that the student is only testing ice samples from coffee drinks at her local coffee shop. This specific context may not provide a representative sample of ice cleanliness from all coffee shops or beverage establishments, or even from the same coffee shop across different times of day or different days. A more comprehensive approach would involve sampling ice from various locations and times to better assess the overall cleanliness of ice in her community or the broader population.