In Data About Us, you will learn different ways to collect, organize, display, and analyze data. In this Unit your student will learn to:
- Use the process of data investigation by posing questions, collecting and analyzing data, and interpreting the data to answer questions
- Organize and represent data using tables, dot plots, line plots, bar graphs, histograms, and box-and-whisker plots
- Describe the overall shape of a distribution and identify whether or not it is symmetrical around a central value
- Compute the mean, median, and mode of a data distribution, and use these measures to indicate what is typical for the distribution
- Describe the variability of a distribution by identifying clusters and gaps, and by calculating the range, Interquartile Range (IQR), and Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD)
- Identify which statistical measures of center and spread should be used to describe a particular distribution of data
- Distinguish between categorical data and numerical data, and identify which graphs and statistics may be used to represent each type of data
- Compare two or more distributions of data, including using measures of center and spread to make comparisons
When you encounter a new problem, it is a good idea to ask yourself questions. In this Unit, you might ask questions such as:
- What question is being investigated to collect these data?
- How might I organize the data?
- What statistical measures will help describe the distribution of data?
- What will these statistical measures tell me about the distribution of the data?
- How can I use graphs and statistics to report an answer to my original question?