Means and medians: What is typical?

Week 6: September 29

MATH 317/ELMA 517 ~ Probability and Statistics for Teachers ~ Fall 2003

Class meeting schedule and topics

Monday, September 29 ~	Measuring center: Means and medians ... (and modes)
Monday, October 6 ~	Measuring spread: Standard deviation, interquartile range, and range
Monday, October 13 ~	Scatterplots

Homework Assignments

5. Due Monday, October 6

   Required work

   1. Read Book 1 Section 4 and Review Book 2 Sections 3 and 4

   2. Read the "Teaching the Mean Meaningfully" article by John Uccellini

   3. Find, collect, or recycle a dataset containing at least one numeric variable. Provide a specific reference, or describe in detail how the data were collected. Compute the mean and the median for your data. Write a paragraph that contains an interpretation of what the mean and the median represent in the context of the data, and which of the two measures of center might be more appropriate to use as a summary for the data.

      Please include at least one graph for your data, although you may use a graph that you have already submitted if you wish.

   4. Find, collect, or recycle a dataset containing at least one categorical variable and at least one numeric variable. That is, the dataset should allow for the comparison of a numeric variable across two categorical groups. Provide a specific reference, or describe in detail how the data were collected. Compute the means and medians for the two groups that are being compared. Write a paragraph that contains an interpretation of what the means and the medians represent in the context of the data, which of the two measures of center might be more appropriate to use as a summary for the data, and whether the centers of the two groups seem to be the same or different.

      Please include graphs for your data, although you may use graphs that you have already submitted if you wish.

   Optional work

   • Repeat exercises (a) or (b) above by hand or using technology.

6. Due Monday, October 13

   Required work

   1. Read Book 1 Section 7 and Book 2 Sections 6 & 7

   2. Find, collect, or recycle a dataset containing at least one numeric variable. Compute the range, interquartile range, and standard deviation for your data. Provide a specific reference, or describe in detail how the data were collected. Which measure of spread seems to be the most appropriate for your dataset? Explain.

      Please include at least one graph for your data, although you may use a graph that you have already submitted if you wish.

   3. Find, collect, or recycle a dataset containing at least one categorical variable and at least one numeric variable. That is, the dataset should allow for the comparison of a numeric variable across two categorical groups. Compute the range, interquartile range, and standard deviation for two groups in your numeric data. Provide a specific reference, or describe in detail how the data were collected. Write a paragraph comparing the spreads of the two groups.

      Please include graphs for your data, although you may use graphs that you have already submitted if you wish.

   Optional work

   • Repeat parts (b) or (c) above by hand or using technology.