Dear SEP Families,
Students in Session 3 collected two kinds of data: data for a short class exercise and data for their team project. For the class exercise, they conducted a few indoor experiments (rolling dice and drawing from a pack of cards) and recorded data of outdoor events – noting down the number of cars passing every minute, calculating ratio of trucks in the traffic, monitoring traffic lights etc. These experiments helped to illustrate the concept of randomness in real life.
This was followed by teams working to develop their project idea and formed the following four ideas:
The different teams developed their hypotheses, collected data by surveying SEP students using a questionnaire and tested their different hypotheses using a chi-squared test.
Students in Session 3 understood that the randomness observed in real world can be classified into existing patterns. The simple data collection exercises conducted inside and outside class illustrated that the occurrence or non-occurrence of an event can be captured by a probability distribution and contingency table would be an appropriate tool for comparing two random variables.
Students in Session 3 also understood the principles of conducting a scientific survey and how to analyze survey data. This is an important skill as statistical surveys and hypotheses testing play an important role in key areas of sociology, businesses, sciences, and engineering.
Students in Session 3 enjoyed the indoor and outdoor data collection exercises. They developed an appreciation for the randomness in the data collected. They also enjoyed working as teams while developing their project ideas, building their hypotheses and developing their questions for the survey.
However, while conducting their surveys, the teams found their sample sizes to be less than optimal for hypothesis testing. Therefore, they increased their sample sizes by conducting their surveys on other students within the classroom. They also found testing the hypotheses they built using the survey data through chi-squared test a bit challenging. Therefore, the teams divided the different steps of hypothesis testing among its different members and, after some practice cases, gradually improved their ability to test hypotheses using chi-squared test.
Students in Session 3 collected two kinds of data: data for a short class exercise and data for their team project. For the class exercise, they conducted a few indoor experiments (rolling dice and drawing from a pack of cards) and recorded data of outdoor events – noting down the number of cars passing every minute, calculating ratio of trucks in the traffic, monitoring traffic lights etc. These experiments helped to illustrate the concept of randomness in real life.
This was followed by teams working to develop their project idea and formed the following four ideas:
- To survey people’s favorite sport to play and watch based on individual’s age for the purpose of target advertising based on age and lifestyle.
- To study students’ choice of colleges and careers based on their location.
- To inform the public on how to reduce their number of sick days by finding a correlation between physical activity, sleep, diet and sickness.
- How do issues, lifestyles and location of students influence their choice of political party and/or candidate?
The different teams developed their hypotheses, collected data by surveying SEP students using a questionnaire and tested their different hypotheses using a chi-squared test.
Students in Session 3 understood that the randomness observed in real world can be classified into existing patterns. The simple data collection exercises conducted inside and outside class illustrated that the occurrence or non-occurrence of an event can be captured by a probability distribution and contingency table would be an appropriate tool for comparing two random variables.
Students in Session 3 also understood the principles of conducting a scientific survey and how to analyze survey data. This is an important skill as statistical surveys and hypotheses testing play an important role in key areas of sociology, businesses, sciences, and engineering.
Students in Session 3 enjoyed the indoor and outdoor data collection exercises. They developed an appreciation for the randomness in the data collected. They also enjoyed working as teams while developing their project ideas, building their hypotheses and developing their questions for the survey.
However, while conducting their surveys, the teams found their sample sizes to be less than optimal for hypothesis testing. Therefore, they increased their sample sizes by conducting their surveys on other students within the classroom. They also found testing the hypotheses they built using the survey data through chi-squared test a bit challenging. Therefore, the teams divided the different steps of hypothesis testing among its different members and, after some practice cases, gradually improved their ability to test hypotheses using chi-squared test.
Resources for Continued Learning
Strengthen your statistical knowledge:
Thank you for being a part of SEP 2016 Session 3.
- S. E. Fienberg. A Brief History of Statistics in Three and One-Half Chapters: A Review Essay. Statistical Science. 1992. 7(2): 208-225.
- Business Statistics by Robert A. Donnelly, JR. Second Edition.
- This website offers resources on how to implement probability distributions in Excel- http://www.real-statistics.com/sampling-distributions/simulation/
Thank you for being a part of SEP 2016 Session 3.
