Introduction
Welcome statisticians, today you are going to go crazy with statistics. Statistics are the backbone of our society. Statistics take events that happen in the past to make informed decisions about the future. Statistics are used in almost every facet of life: from weather, to finances, to traffic, to sports, even to your future spouse!
Task
How would you like to be able to tell the future? Does that sound appealing? Today you are going to be given the tools to (sort of) to predict the future in ways you could never imagine. You and 3 of your friends are going to journey through the inter web to find your hidden super power of prediction using statistics. You are going to research the history of statistics to build your foundation. You will be introduced to the basic statistics and find how they interact with your world.
Process
Step 1: For the beginning of your adventure we are going to have to learn some of the basics. You can't build a house without a foundation. Look up the following graph/plots, find out what they are, when they are used, and what they look like:
Scatterplot
Box and Whisker
Histogram
Stemplot
Upon completion of your research, draw an example of each graph/plot using the data from your resource (Use a maximum of 15 years). You can not move on to part 2 until you have shown your various graphs to your guide (Me).
Resources for Step 1:
http://stattrek.com/tutorials/ap-statistics-tutorial.aspx
http://www.seattlecentral.edu/qelp/sets/048/s048.pdf
Step 2: Now that we know some different ways we can look at our data, lets start going more in depth. Now you are going to build 2 scatter plots to start working on that super power of prediction. Use the resources below to pick your data set for your scatter plot. Build 2 separate scatter plots using 2 separate crime rates over the same time span (15 years). Once you have built your scatter plots go to the front and obtain your inference worksheet. Answer the questions on the worksheet about your 2 scatter plots.
Has the rate of the crime increased or decreased in you time span?
What do you think will happen over the next 5 years?
Resource for Part 2:
https://www.ucrdatatool.gov/Search/Crime/Crime.cfm
Once you have completed your worksheet, bring it to the front to have it checked then you can move on to the third and final stage.
Part 3:
Now you are ready to start the first step in honing your super power. Your final task is to take your 2 scatter plots and your going to compare them using different methods. Navigate to the final links and learn how you can compare your two data sets. When you are ready, obtain the final piece of the puzzle (your last worksheet) from the front. Use your web resources to help find the correlations for each data set then compare.
http://stattrek.com/regression/regression-example.aspx?Tutorial=AP
http://stattrek.com/statistics/charts/compare-data-sets.aspx?Tutorial=AP
Evaluation
| 3 Points - Satisfies all criteria. Neat/Orderly and clearly communicated. | 2 Points - Satisfies some of the criteria. Lacks some understand or organization. | 1 Point - Only satisfies a small part of criteria. Does not clearly communicate student understanding | |
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Example Graphs |
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| Data Table/Scatter Plots | |||
| Coefficient Correlation | |||
| Data Comparison |
Conclusion
Awesome job! You have now unlocked the secret to telling the future! We will be delving deeper into the "science" of predicting the future now that you have a good understanding of the basics.