Wednesday, August 27: 1.

1 Analyzing Categorical Data

Read 2–4

What’s the difference between categorical and quantitative variables?

Focus on “who is being measured” and “what is being measured”

Do we ever use numbers to describe the values of a categorical variable? Do we ever divide the
distribution of a quantitative variable into categories?
Make sure to discuss categorical variables that are recorded with numbers (p3). For example,
AIMS results, AP scores, area codes.
Also, often variables like age, weight, and so on are divided into categories and treated as a
categorical variable.

What is a distribution?

Note the “values” can be words or numbers

Alternate Example: US Census Data

Here is information about 10 randomly selected US residents from the 2000 census.

Number of Family Marital Total Travel time

State Age Gender
Members Status Income to work
Kentucky 2 61 Female Married 21000 20
Florida 6 27 Female Married 21300 20
Wisconsin 2 27 Male Married 30000 5
California 4 33 Female Married 26000 10
Michigan 3 49 Female Married 15100 25
Virginia 3 26 Female Married 25000 15
Pennsylvania 4 44 Male Married 43000 10
Virginia 4 22 Male Never married/ single 3000 0
California 1 30 Male Never married/ single 40000 15
New York 4 34 Female Separated 30000 40

(a) Who are the individuals in this data set?

mention format of data tables: rows and columns

(b) What variables are measured? Identify each as categorical or quantitative.

(c) Describe the individual in the first row.

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Read 7–11

What is the difference between a data table, a frequency table, and a relative frequency table? When is
it better to use relative frequency?

A data table would have rows for each station and columns for station name and type. The data
table lists individuals and the frequency table summarizes the distribution of a variable. If we
wanted to compare the distributions of radio stations in Tucson and the US, it would be better to
use relative freq.

What is the most important thing to remember when making pie charts and bar graphs? Why do
statisticians prefer bar graphs?

Proper labeling! Easier to make and compare

Skip TAI on bottom of page 9

When is it inappropriate to use a pie chart?

What are some common ways to make a misleading graph?

Violate the area principle
Don’t start the frequency axis at 0
3D

What is wrong with the following graph?

HW #11: page 6 (1, 3, 5, 7, 8), page 21 (11, 17, 18)

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Thursday, August 28: 1.1 Analyzing Categorical Data (assembly schedule)

Read 12–18

What is a two-way table? What is a marginal distribution?

What is a conditional distribution? How do we know which variable to condition on?

Remind them that there are two sets of conditional distributions for a two-way table
Which set should we use? (p16 think about it: explanatory vs. response)

What is a segmented bar graph? Why are they good to use?

Forces to use percents, easy to compare?

Also called a “stacked” bar chart.

What does it mean for two variables to have an association? How can you tell by looking at a graph?

Knowing the value of one variable helps you predict the value of the other variable. For
example, if knowing that a person is male makes one of the responses more likely, there is an
association between gender and response.
Give two examples of graphs—one with no association and one with an association.

Alternate Example: Cell Phones

The Pew Research Center asked a random sample of 2024 adult
cell phone owners from the United States which type of cell phone
they own: iPhone, Android, or other (including non-smart
phones). Here are the results, broken down by age category
(a) Explain what it would mean if there was no association
between age and cell phone type.
(b) Based on this data, can we conclude there is an association between age and cell phone type?
Justify.

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HW #12: page 22 (20, 22, 23, 25, 27–34)

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Tuesday, September 2: 1.2 Displaying Quantitative Data with Graphs

Brian and Jessica have decided to move and are considering seven different cities. The dotplots below
show the daily high temperatures in June, July, and August for each of these cities. Help them pick a
city by answering the questions below.
A
B
C
D
E
F
G

50 60 70 80 90 100 110

1. What is the most important difference between cities A, B, and C?

Center!

2. What is the most important difference between cities C and D?

Spread!

3. What are two important differences between cities D and E?

Spread (but not range), outliers

4. What is the most important difference between cities C, F, and G?

Shape!

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Read 25–27 Make sure to emphasize we are now looking at quantitative data!

When describing the distribution of a quantitative variable, what characteristics should be addressed?
Patterns and departures from patterns: SOCS

Read 27–29

Briefly illustrate the following distribution shapes:

Symmetric Skewed right Skewed left

Skewed right looks like right foot (big toe on left, small toe on right)
Mention “positively skewed”

Unimodal Bimodal Uniform

Emphasize that we don’t worry about little bumps: see graph on page 28
Example of bimodal: Old faithful (page 28), hair length, ages at open house night

Read 29–30

What is the most important thing to remember when you are asked to compare two distributions?
Actually compare them using explicit comparison words!

Alternate Example: Energy Cost: Top vs. Bottom Freezers

How do the annual energy costs (in dollars) compare for refrigerators with top freezers and refrigerators
with bottom freezers? The data below is from the May 2010 issue of Consumer Reports.

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Read 31–32 (word for word)

What is the most important thing to remember when making a stemplot?

Label variable and include scale/key!!

Alternate Example: Which gender is taller, males or females? A sample of 14-year-olds from the United
Kingdom was randomly selected using the CensusAtSchool website. Here are the heights of the
students (in cm). Make a back-to-back stemplot and compare the distributions.

Male: 154, 157, 187, 163, 167, 159, 169, 162, 176, 177, 151, 175, 174, 165, 165, 183, 180
Female: 160, 169, 152, 167, 164, 163, 160, 163, 169, 157, 158, 153, 161, 165, 165, 159, 168,
153, 166, 158, 158, 166

HW #13: page 41 (37, 39, 43, 45, 47)

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Wednesday, September 3: 1.2 Histograms (half-day)

The following table presents the average points scored per game (PPG) for the 30 NBA teams in the
2012–2013 regular season. Make a dotplot to display the distribution of points per game. Then, use
your dotplot to make a histogram of the distribution.

Team PPG Team PPG Team PPG

Atlanta Hawks 98.0 Houston Rockets 106.0 Oklahoma City Thunder 105.7
Boston Celtics 96.5 Indiana Pacers 94.7 Orlando Magic 94.1
Brooklyn Nets 96.9 Los Angeles Clippers 101.1 Philadelphia 76ers 93.2
Charlotte Bobcats 93.4 Los Angeles Lakers 102.2 Phoenix Suns 95.2
Chicago Bulls 93.2 Memphis Grizzlies 93.4 Portland Trail Blazers 97.5
Cleveland Cavaliers 96.5 Miami Heat 102.9 Sacramento Kings 100.2
Dallas Mavericks 101.1 Milwaukee Bucks 98.9 San Antonio Spurs 103.0
Denver Nuggets 106.1 Minnesota Timberwolves 95.7 Toronto Raptors 97.2
Detroit Pistons 94.9 New Orleans Hornets 94.1 Utah Jazz 98.0
Golden State Warriors 101.2 New York Knicks 100.0 Washington Wizards 93.2

Suggest that students mentally populate a histogram with dots to make them less abstract.

______________________________________________________________________________

Read 33–36

How do you make a histogram?

Emphasize labels, equal class widths, what to do with boundary values…

Read 38–41

Why would we prefer a relative frequency histogram to a frequency histogram?

Ex: comparing distribution of GPA for our class and the entire school.

What will cause you to lose points on tests and projects (and turn the rest of Mr. Tabor’s hair gray)?

Making a “histogram” with observation number on the x axis and value of the variable on the y
axis. Very common mistake when using Excel.

HW #14: page 43 (51, 53, 55, 59–62)

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Thursday, September 4: 1.3 Describing Quantitative Data with Numbers

Read 48–50 Distribute formula sheets

What is the difference between and ?

Give an example of using to estimate .

What is a resistant measure? Is the mean a resistant measure of center?

How can you estimate the mean of a histogram or dotplot?

Give a simple dotplot and show how deviations from mean add to 0: 1, 2, 3, 6, 8

Read 51–53

Is the median a resistant measure of center? Explain.

Mean and Median Applet at TPS site

How does the shape of a distribution affect the relationship between the mean and the median?

Home prices, etc.

Read 53–55 After first paragraph, sketch dotplots to illustrate this situation.

What is the range? Is it a resistant measure of spread? Explain.

What are quartiles? How do you find them?

Draw generic dotplot with 12 dots. Label quartiles and then label range and IQR.

What is the interquartile range (IQR)? Is the IQR a resistant measure of spread?

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Alternate Example: McDonald’s Fish and Chicken Sandwiches
Here are data on the amount of fat (in grams) in 9 Sandwich Fat
different McDonald’s fish and chicken sandwiches. (g)
Calculate the median and the IQR. Filet-O-Fish® 19
McChicken® 16
Premium Crispy Chicken Classic Sandwich 22
Premium Crispy Chicken Club Sandwich 33
Premium Crispy Chicken Ranch Sandwich 27
Premium Grilled Chicken Classic Sandwich 9
Premium Grilled Chicken Club Sandwich 20
Premium Grilled Chicken Ranch Sandwich 14
Southern Style Crispy Chicken Sandwich 19
Read 56–57 (read long teaching tip on page 56)

What is an outlier? How do you identify them? Are there outliers in the chicken/fish sandwich
distribution?

IQR dance =)

Here is data for the amount of fat (in grams) for Sandwich Fat
McDonald’s beef sandwiches. Are there any outliers in this Big Mac® 29
distribution? Cheeseburger 12
Daily Double 24
Double Cheeseburger 23
Double Quarter Pounder® with cheese 43
Hamburger 9
McDouble 19
McRib® 26
Quarter Pounder® Bacon and Cheese 29
Quarter Pounder® Bacon Habanero Ranch 31
Quarter Pounder® Deluxe 27
Quarter Pounder® with Cheese 26

Read 57–59

What is the five-number summary? How is it displayed?

Draw parallel boxplots for the beef and chicken/fish sandwich data. Compare these distributions.
 Discuss common errors: using “IQR” to describe the region, not the distance between
quartiles, can’t see the peaks when using a boxplot (show presidential days in office file).
 Talk about how to make boxplots on TI—see page 59, mention VIDEOS!

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HW #15: page 47 (69–74), page 69 (79, 81, 83, 85, 86, 88, 89, 91, 93, 94a)

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Monday, September 8: 1.3 Standard Deviation

In the distribution below, how far are the values from the mean, on average?

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

What does the standard deviation measure?

Use dotplot summaries applet at rossmanchance.com to practice estimating SD

Do some guesses that are clearly too small and too big and get kids to explain how they know the
guesses are too small or too big.

What are some similarities and differences between the range, IQR, and standard deviation?

Sim: all measure variability

Diff: resistance to outliers, using all the data

Do the by-hand SD calculation for dotplot above before doing the reading!

Read 60–62

How is the standard deviation calculated? What is the variance?

Remind them the formula is on the formula sheet

Don’t really need to know about variance now, just SD squared
Discuss why we use n – 1 if students are interested

What are some properties of the standard deviation?

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Alternate Example: A random sample of 5 students was asked how many minutes they spent doing HW
the previous night. Here are their responses (in minutes): 0, 25, 30, 60, 90. Calculate and interpret the
standard deviation.

Read 63–66 Go through all the calculator stuff, including difference between s and

What factors should you consider when choosing summary statistics?

Discuss four-step process

HW #16: page 71 (97, 99, 101–105, 107–110)

Tuesday, September 9: FRAPPY! College fair?

FRAPPY page 74

HW #17: page 76 Chapter Review Exercises

Wednesday, September 10: Review Chapter 1

Matching Distributions activity from Activity Based Statistics

HW #18: page 78 Chapter 1 AP Statistics Practice Test

Friday, September 12: Chapter 1 Test

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