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Math Studies Statistics

Torture numbers and they'll confess toanything. ~Gregg Easterbrook

The study of statistics blends the rigor, calculations

and deductive thinking of mathematics, the real-world

examples and problems of the social sciences, the

decision-making needs of business and medicine and thelaboratory method and experimental procedures of the

natural sciences.

- The College Board, Advanced Placement Program,

Teachers Guide AP

Statistics

Statistics can be made to prove anything - even the truth. ~AuthorUnknownAmong leaders of industry, business, government and

education, almost everyone agrees that some knowledge ofstatistics is necessary to be an informed citizen or a

productive worker. Numbers are regularly used and

misused to justify opinions on public policy.

Quantitative information is the basis for decision-

making in virtually every job within business and

industry. Many academic programs at the college level

include statistics as a requirement.

- The College Board, Advanced Placement Program,

Teachers Guide AP Statistics

While the individual man is an insoluble puzzle, in the aggregate he

becomes a mathematical certainty. You can, for example, neverforetell what any one man will be up to, but you can say with precision

what an average number will be up to. Individuals vary, but

percentages remain constant. So says the statistician. ~Arthur Conan

Doyle

The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a

statistic. ~Joe Stalin, comment to Churchill at Potsdam, 1945

Shemaylook at it because it has picturesThis is what Florence Nightingale said about a book of statistics that she

had sent to Queen Victoria

Education is what survives when what has been learned has beenforgotten.

B. F. Skinner

In ten years time you might have forgotten, for example, how the standard deviation of a set of data is calculated,but in everything you study at school there issome important understanding that can endure.please keep the

following essential questions in mind and think about them as you work through this unit.

Essential Questions

How does statistics impact positively on our lives?

Is it important to be statistically literate?

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics (Benjamin Disraeli, 1804-1881, British Prime

Minister). This is a very famous and controversial quote. Why can he say this?

If youre not statistically-literate, youre vulnerable to manipulation by governments, corporations and the media.

How could you defend or oppose this statement?

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Learning Outcomes for this Unit

This is what youre expected to know, understand and be able to do by the end of this unit. Think

about what youve already learned and tick boxes in the confidence log below to help you judge what

youneed to focus on in this unit (maybe everything, thats ok).

Learning outcome Very confident Confident but need to

review it

Not confident

Explains the concepts of population

and sample

Identifies discrete and continuous

data

Interprets frequency tables (grouped

and ungrouped)

Constructs frequency tables

(grouped and ungrouped)

Uses the terms mid-interval value,

class/interval width, upper and

lower class/interval boundaries

Interprets frequency histograms

Constructs frequency histograms

Interprets cumulative frequency

graphs

Uses the terms quartiles to describe

the distribution of a data set

Uses a cumulative frequency graph

to find quartiles and median

Finds and interprets these measures

of central tendency: mean, median

and mode (from a raw data set, a

grouped or ungrouped frequency

table or histogram)

Finds and interprets these measures

of dispersion: range, interquartile

range, variance and standard

deviation (from a raw data set, a

table or cumulative frequency

curve)

Interprets box and whisker plots

Constructs box and whisker plots