Oh well they will have to collect less interesting data.

They can put surveys up online and a marketing company will get a couple thousand people to take it! If she's interested in things like whether different phrasings of survey questions get different results. 

Oooh that could be fun.

Her math tutor thinks it's fascinating! The order in which you ask people questions, and the phrasing of questions, produces very different results! What questions does she want to ask people?

Can she ask them questions about aliens?

"What a good idea!"

She asks people what they think aliens would be like in various ways.

Aliens would probably be hostile if there aren't enough planets but maybe they'd be friendly if there are lots and lots of planets. Aliens would have more divisions in their caste system. Aliens would have sophisticated genetic engineering so everyone would be perfectly suited to their jobs. Aliens would probably be very strange. Aliens would probably be evolved for a planet with shorter years than Amenta, because most habitable planets are. Aliens might have all uploaded their brains. Aliens couldn't be worse than blues. 

(As expected, question phrasing affects how optimistic people are about aliens. If you ask first about whether aliens have population controls then people will be likelier to say aliens are hostile.)

She dutifully reports her results.

Her math tutor explains some ways to evaluate their numbers. (The rest of the class moves on from addition and subtraction to graphing things. Lintalai should learn graphing, too, but more complicated kinds.)

She will graph her results and other stuff too.

There are great graphic visualization programs! The kids flip coins and collect data to try to tell if the coins are fair. 

The programs are neat! How do they work?

It's complicated! She can take programming classes when she's older. 

...hmmm.

"Having fun at school?"

"Yes but they said I could only take a programming class when I am older."

"...and you want to take a programming class now?"

"At least a little bit of one! What would I have to grow up more for?"

"Hmm... typing speed, understanding complicated abstractions, maybe working memory?"

"...how much of those do I need and how do I tell if I have them?"

"I am not sure. Lots of people can never learn to program because they're not smart enough, so - more than the average adult? But you might already have that."

"Well there has to be some way to tell."

"I guess you could try an online tutorial with me and see how far you get."

"Yes."