By the end of this unit, students are expected to:
Pose questions, collect and analyze data, and make interpretations to answer questions.
Apply Guidelines for Describing Distributions as a tool to be used with the analyzing and interpreting phases of the statistical investigation process
Construct and use simple surveys as a method of collecting data
Analyze data distributions.
Distinguish data and data types
Recognize data consist of counts or measurements of a variable that are called a distribution of data values
Distinguish between categorical data and numerical data and identify which graphs and statistics may be used to represent each kind of data
Use multiple representations
Organize and represent data using tables, dot plots, line plots, value bar graphs, frequency bar graphs, histograms, and box-and-whisker plots
Make informed decisions about which graphs/tables are used to display data being analyzed (ties back to questions asked, data types, etc.)
Recognize that data displayed using a graph shows the overall shape of a distribution and gives a general sense of whether the data values are or are not symmetrical around a central value or if there is something unusual about the shape
Recognize that a single number may be computed and used to characterize the center or what’s typical for a distribution of data
Distinguish and compute measures of central tendency: the mean, median, or mode of the data
Identify how the median and mean respond to changes in the number and magnitude of data values in a distribution
Make informed decisions about which measures of central tendency (mean, median, or mode) may be used to describe a data distribution
Recognize that variability occurs whenever data are collected and describe the variability in the distribution of a given data set
Describe the amount of variability in a distribution, noting if the data values are pretty much the same or are quite spread out
Distinguish and compute measures of spread: range, interquartile range (IQR), and mean absolute deviation (MAD)
Develop strategies for analyzing and/or comparing data distributions
Identify which statistical measures of center and spread (mean, median, mode, range, etc.) are most appropriate to use to describe a distribution of data
Use measures of center and spread to compare data distributions