So far this year, I think the most helpful topics that we have covered in class are normal distributions and the empirical rule.  The normal curve, known by many as the “bell curve”, is often used to describe distributions of data that are common in everyday life.  With the empirical rule, it is easy to find what percentile a score falls into along this curve.  This is extremely useful in everyday life because in any job your performance will be compared to others, and using this knowledge makes it easy to assess how well you are performing compared to the rest of the playing field.  Personally I think that significance testing has been the most interesting topic we’ve covered so far.  I’ve always wondered how to prove that a claim made by a source is truly accurate, so I find it interesting to test this, even if they are made up.

I think that Stats is a good class for students to take because it teaches real world math.  Not everyone will use calculus, but everybody will have to interpret a graph or describe a set of data at some point in their life.  When I started the class, it honestly seemed easy and kind of boring.  But if I could go back, I would tell myself that this isn’t the case.  As the year progressed, the class became progressively harder and more interesting at the same time.  This has helped me to grow as a student because it has forced me to work harder and improve my studying habits in order to maintain good grades.

One thing that I do think would make the class more interesting would be more hands on activities.  Sometimes class got repetitive with similarly structured classes every day.  I think that doing more hands on activities (such as the candy grab lab) will make class time more exciting and help students to learn and apply material better.

 

I think that this picture of light waves best sums up the year for me.  As a senior it is my final year of high school. This entire last year has seemed to go by so quickly that it all seems like a blur.  While I still have learned very much this year, I wish that it would go by slower so that I could enjoy its full potential, rather than being so focused on what I will be doing in the coming years.  However, I am still excited for my future and look forward to my first year of college.

What is Stats Olympics?

Stats Olympics is a project where groups each create a game.  After everyone in the class has competed, each group then takes the data collected during the game and analyzes it.  The game that our group came up with was Esketit.  In this game, there is a piece of cardboard that is standing vertically with a hole cut in the middle of it.  The goal is to bounce a ping-pong ball exactly one time off of the table and through the hole.  Each hole made equals one point.  Each participant gets two turns with ten throws each.  The link to our results is posted below.

Esketit The Game

Results

5 Number Summary:
Minimum = 0
Q1 = 1
Median = 4
Q3 = 7
Max = 10

Mean: 4.25

Standard Deviation: 3.23

Based on our data, the five number summary best describes our set of data because of the outliers that skew the mean and standard deviation.  We determined this because the mean is greater than the median, which means the data is skewed right.

 

Empirical Rule and Distribution

 

Above are two distribution curves, the top showing a true normal distribution, and the bottom showing the distribution of the data we collected.  We determined that our data is not normally distributed because it does not fit the empirical rule.  According to the empirical rule, 68% of the data should fall within one standard deviation of the mean in a normal distribution.  In our set of data, only 50% fell within one standard deviation.  100% of our data also fell within two standard deviations, whereas, in a normal distribution, only 95% should fall in this range.

Conclusion

All in all our group really enjoyed this project.  We thought that it was a fun break from a traditional class and would love to do it again.  We ultimately learned that statistical data can easily be skewed by lucky or extremely skilled participants whose scores are outliers.  It is, therefore, important to collect as much data as possible and to use methods of collection that can prevent these scores from affecting the data.

Hello!  My name is Adam M and I am a Senior at CV High School.  I am involved in the JROTC program at my school, as well as NHS and the stage crew for our annual musical.  Outside of school I enjoy many hobbies.  These include hiking, camping, biking, fishing, and anything else that has to do with the outdoors.  I am also involved with Boy Scouts and enjoy playing guitar in a band.