Category: Class Agendas

Learning Outcomes.

• Collect, organize and graph raw data.
• Know the difference between numerical and categorical variables.
• Create grouped frequency distributions and histograms. Class intervals should be of equal width, chosen to effectively reveal informative patterns in the data, between 5 (for overview) and 15 (for some detail).
• Describe a graphical display by first describing the overall pattern (e.g., roughly symmetrical or skewed right or left) and then deviations from that pattern, such as outliers.
• Understand that the vertical axis of the histogram may be scaled for frequency or percentage (proportion), but the choice of vertical scaling will not affect the important features revealed by a histogram.

• Excel: know how to freeze panes, sort and filter data, format tables, make charts and use pivot tables.

Topic. This lesson covers: Graphical Descriptive Techniques

• Openstax Introductory Statistics:
  • 1.3 Frequency, Frequency Tables, and Levels of Measurement
  • 2.1 Stem-and-Leaf Graphs (Stemplots), Line Graphs, and Bar Graphs
  • 2.2 Histograms, Frequency Polygons, and Time Series Graphs
• Introductory Statistics by Sheldon Ross, 3rd edition: Sections 2.1-2.4
• Statistics with Microsoft Excel by Beverly J. Dretzke, 5th edition: SORT, FREQUENCY, P. 28 – 29

WeBWorK: Sets 1.3, 2.1 & 2.2 

Creating a Histogram – Example from Excel Lecture 2 

Below you will find videos to help you organize and display data in Excel. By 2016, Microsoft had added a histogram to its charts. By clicking on the bottom axis, you can specify the number of bins or the class width. A further option is to use the data array calculation “frequency”. Here is a step-by-step guide. Once you have the table, you can create appropriate labels using columns of the left and right boundaries for each interval and  the “concatenate” function.

Learning Outcomes.

• Know the difference between descriptive and inferential statistics.
• Understand what a sample and population are (data for a sample is often collected even though what is of interest is the population).
• Begin to create an understanding of the difference between probability and statistics (probability is the engine that makes statistics work, although there is a bit of a “which comes first, the chicken or the egg” issue).
• Excel: format cells, use multiple worksheets, formulas (functions) and relative/absolute cell references.

Topic. This lesson is an introduction to Excel, Probability and Statistics

• Openstax Introductory Statistics
  • 1.1 Definitions of Statistics, Probability, and Key Terms
  • 1.2 Data, Sampling, and Variation in Data and Sampling
• Statistics with Microsoft Excel by Beverly J. Dretzke, 5th ed., P. 1 – 5, 9 – 11 and 13 – 23.

WeBWorK. Sets 1.1 & 1.2

Install Microsoft Office on any device (tablet, laptop, desktop) that you may use for your coursework.

Excel Lecture #1

Below you will find a video to help you get started with Excel. For a more extensive introduction, try up to lesson 16 in the mini course by GCFglobal. When doing this course, have an Excel file open (perhaps the provided practice workbook). Those with Microsoft experience may opt to skip the first few lessons and begin with “5 Cell Basics“.