Tuesday, 5/21/13 - Wednesday 5/29/13

Post date: May 20, 2013 10:26:08 PM

We started talking about the Math IB Internal Assessment. Here is the Rationale for this week: a bit about the IB Math Internal Assessment, and a little bit about choosing a question.

Here is the data set we will use in class about heights and weights and ice cream sales (and also about IB Physics).

Here are some guidelines about choosing a data set. Here are some links to some data sets and some helpful tips.

Here is the Math Paper Proposal document. When you think you've settled on a question and have found data to help you on this question, please download this document, fill it in, and email it to me. Everyone should have a finalized and approved question by Wednesday, May 29. If not, you will have a zero for the assignment until you have an approved question and an appropriate data set.

Send me an email with your proposal. Using Alaa an example, the subject line should be "Agag Final Propsoal". The title of the proposal word document should be "Agag_Alaa_Proposal" and the title of your excel data set should be "Agag_Alaa_Data".

Here are interesting links to statistics-related articles in the news:

• Pain Relievers Do Not Cause Asthma, Study Finds; this article talks about how an inappropriate statistical conclusion lead to health concerns for children and pain relievers
• Nate Silver's Election Predictions a Win for Big Data; many pundits felt that the 2012 elections were too close to predict, while Nate Silver of the Five Thirty Eight blog (NY Times) accurately predicted all electoral college results
• Here's his methodology (a little more statistical and technical, but accessible)
• BBC Six-Point Primer on Understanding Statistics in the News
• If all this statistical research interests you, you might be interested in reading about a possible major in "big data"