How Hot Was it?
Analyzing School Temperature Data Using z-Scores and p-Values
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Big Ideas
Big Ideas
Practice comparing measures of quantitative data, focusing on shape, center, spread, and outliers within different groups in the same sample.
Apply z-scores and p-values to assess differences between the groups.
Use the data to determine whether location, time of day, or year impact temperature variation across the school, and explore how these variations might affect student learning.
Research Question
Research Question
You’ll use temperature data collected from various locations around the school at different times to compare two areas and answer a specific research question. Potential questions include:
Are there significant temperature differences between different floors or wings of the school?
Does the temperature vary significantly at different times of the day or across seasons?
Could temperature differences potentially affect student comfort and learning?
5.1 SBHS Floor Plan.pdfPractice First
Practice First
1.10 Comparing Temperature Distributions
(Units, context, comparison words)
Data
Data
The Class Data Spreadsheet contains temperature recordings from around the school, collected from different locations and times. Use this data to guide your analysis.
Project Steps and Checklist:
Decide on a Research Question:
Choose two sections of the school to compare (e.g., first floor vs. second floor, east wing vs. west wing).
Your question needs to be unique! When you have a question, enter it here. If someone else has already chosen your question, please pick a different one.
Visualize the Data:
Use Stapplet to create side-by-side histograms or box plots or dot plots for your two groups.
Use the graphs to compare the shape, center, and spread of the temperature distributions.
Calculate Z-Scores and P-Values:
The optimal classroom temperature is 71°F with a standard deviation of 1.5°F. How does the mean of your areas (or specific rooms) compare?
Compute z-scores for the two areas or two individual rooms to standardize the temperatures and compare how far individual temperatures are from the ideal mean in each group/room.
Use p-values to determine if the differences in temperature between the groups are statistically significant.
Make Conclusions:
Draw conclusions from your analysis. Do the temperatures differ by location, time of day, or year?
Reflect on whether these differences might impact student learning, referencing your quantitative findings.
Create a Presentation:
Use the presentation template provided to summarize your research question, methods, findings, and conclusions.
Include your visualizations (histograms, box plots) and explain your z-score and p-value calculations.
Bonus points (in my ❤️, not on your grade) for using a creative slide theme!
Submit Your Work:
Paste a link to your presentation in the Class Data Tab. Don’t forget to adjust the sharing settings so I can view it.
Tips
Tips
Pay close attention to the shape (symmetry, skewness), center (mean, median), and spread (range, interquartile range, standard deviation) when comparing groups.
When calculating z-scores, interpret whether specific temperatures fall significantly above or below the mean.
Use p-values to assess whether any observed differences are statistically significant.
FYI There is way too much text on these slides for a presentation - picture the presenters saying the things in RED and deleting them from the slides.
Comparisons
Comparisons
Instead of saying:
“The average temperature on the first floor was 78°F, and the second floor was 79°F,”
You would say:
“The average temperature on the first floor was 78°F, which was 1°F cooler than the second floor’s average of 79°F.”
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