Resource Library

This article describes a dataset containing energy use data for single-family homes and monthly weather data in the Boston area over a seven year period. The data can help illustrate concepts like central tendency, dispersion, time series analysis, correlation, simple and multiple regression, and variable transformations. Key Words: measurement; forecasting.

This activity uses Microsoft Excel to estimate the population variance of grouped data two ways: the variance within a group and the variance between groups. This activity accompanies Section 7.3 of Data Matters.

This site provides applets, lessons, and objectives for learning about conditional probability. The applet activity introduces multiple-outcomes events and computing probabilities.

This site provides numerous datasets for graphical display topics including linear, exponential, logistic, power rule, periodic, and other bivariate scatterplots, histograms, and other univariate data. Each data set is accompanied with a description, file format options, and a sample graph.

This is a collection of activities as Java applets that can be used to explore probability and statistics. Each activity is supplemented with background information, activity instructions, and a curriculum for the activity.

This worksheet activity teaches random sampling and theoretical probabilities by simulating the effects of randomly assigning newborn babies to their mothers. Students will perform trials and keep track of results, then use the information to deduce properties of random sampling. The relation website is an applet that simulates the process automatically.

This applet simulates randomly assigning newborn babies to families and measures the number of matches, or instances when a baby is assigned to its real family. The applet keeps track of each trial and records the information in a histogram. The idea is to teach theoretical values associated with random sampling. The relation website is a worksheet activity to accompany the applet.

Using a parameter it's possible to represent a property of an entire population with a single number instead of millions of individual data points. There are a number of possible parameters to choose from such as the median, mode, or interquartile range. Each is calculated in a different manner and illuminates the data from a different point of view. The mean is one of the most useful and widely used and helps us understand populations. A population is simulated by generating 10,000 floating point random numbers between 0 and 10. Sample means are displayed in histograms and analyzed.

This lesson plan uses the Birthday Paradox to introduce basic concepts of probability. Students run a Monte Carlo simulation using the TI-83 graphing calculator to generate random dates, and then search for matching pairs. Students also perform a graphical analysis of the birthday-problem function. Key Words: Permutations; Explicit Function; Recursive Function; Modeling.

An independent, nonpartisan resource on trends in American public opinion. Gives examples of recent polls, margins of error, questions asked, and sample sizes.