Lab Assignment for Chapters 2 and 3 MATH
1342 – Statistics
Instructor: David Katz
Your first lab assignment is to analyze a current events article by creating a frequency table and a histogram. Limit yourself to a short article that includes a list of numeric data. This assignment should include four parts:
1) Copy of the Article – you may look for short articles in the newspaper, Internet, or similar source. You may even use a memo or policy document from your work. For starters, try these or other news/data sources:
www.dallasnews.com www.usatoday.com
www.cnn.com http://www.census.gov/prod/www/statistical-abstract.html
For best results (i.e., to make your work easier), try to avoid data that contain years or relative frequencies (percentages, consumer indices, etc.). The list of data values you choose should be at least 10 elements long (i.e., do not make a frequency chart and histogram for just one or two data values!).
2) Citation Information – state the article’s title, publisher, author(s), date of publication, and URL if available. If you use the Statistical Abstract of the United States, please include the year the Abstract was published and the number of the table you used (e.g., 2007 Edition of the Statistical Abstract of the United States, Table 168, etc.).
3) Summary of the Statistics Problem - summarize in 2 or 3 sentences the topic of the data.
4) Verification of the Statistical Method – show the mathematics behind the data.
1. Create a frequency table based on the data you collect. Use the guidelines on page 44 for making the table. For example, a good table will have from 5 to 20 classes or rows of information.
2. Using the table, construct a histogram based on the guidelines on pages 51-52. Be sure to label what is measured on the horizontal (x-axis) and on the vertical (y-axis).
3. Include descriptive captions (1 or 2 sentences) with the frequency table and histogram.
4. Compute the mean and the standard deviation for your data. Show the arithmetic and formulas you use in these computations. Specify the units of measurements for the mean and standard deviation.
How You Are Graded
(e.g., 48 out of 50 total points equals a grade of 96):
|
Item |
Points |
|
Summary, Citation, or Copy of Article |
5 |
|
Column Headings for Frequency Table |
5 |
|
Appropriate Classes in Frequency Table |
5 |
|
Appropriate Frequencies (no percents) |
5 |
|
Histogram Bars Appropriate Height |
5 |
|
Captions for Histogram & Frequency Table |
5 |
|
Horizontal Axis of
Histogram Labeled |
5 |
|
Vertical Axis of Histogram Labeled |
5 |
|
Mean Computed |
5 |
|
Standard Deviation Computed |
5 |
|
TOTAL POINTS |
50 |
Typing the report is not necessary, but remember neatness counts! If I cannot read your report, I cannot grade it! Your finished report should be about 1-2 pages.
I encourage you to work together with your classmates to help write up the lab and/or find good articles with data tables. However, please don’t just copy verbatim a classmate’s lab report and hand it in as your own!
SOME HINTS ….
Sample Data That Probably Would NOT Work for This Lab:
Table 1: Animals in City Shelter
|
|
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
2005 |
|
Total Animals in Shelter |
629 |
1,221 |
1426 |
2,137 |
|
Animals Redeemed |
82 |
238 |
259 |
411 |
|
Animals Adopted |
147 |
416 |
538 |
818 |
|
Animals Euthanized |
225 |
363 |
431 |
527 |
In Table-1, the rows or classes are nominal data or names of categories; the columns are also nominal data or the names of years. Your results work best when your data can be organized into numerical classes (called interval or ratio data in the textbook).
Here’s how you could re-organize the data to work better with this lab:
Table
2: Redemption of Animals by Weight
|
Weight (lbs) |
Frequency (No. Redeemed in 2005) |
|
0 – 9 |
?? |
|
10 – 19 |
?? |
|
20 – 29 |
?? |
|
30 – 39 |
?? |
|
40 – 49 |
?? |
|
50 – 59 |
?? |
|
60 – 69 |
?? |
Obviously, someone still needs to supply the frequency counts, but notice that the rows or classes now consist of intervals or numerical data. This type of data works best with this lab. Why? Because in this lab you are asked to compute the mean and standard deviation. As you know, you can only input numerical data into these formulas, not names or nominal data.