Statistics

Skills to be practiced:
Addition
Subtraction
Multiplication
Division
Measuring
Graphing
o Line, Bar, Circle

o Determining the best way to

represent a set of data
o Understanding how a data is
presented can influence how you
read it
o Analysis of data sets and organizing
them
o Problem solving
Data Range: The difference between the greatest and least value in a set of data
Mode: The value or item that occurs most in a set of data
Median: The middle value of the ordered data.
Mean: The mean is determined by sharing the sum of the data evenly among the values in
the set.
Outliers: A data value that is far from the other data values.
Skewing: Twisting, changing, altering, or distorting to make something biased or misleading.

You will be completing 4 activities that have to do with the topics of using statistics, skewing
statistics, and creating your own data. You will use many of the math skills you have developed
over previous units including graphing and problem solving calculations involving multiplication
and division. Most importantly, you need to figure out first, before you start doing calculations,

WHAT INFORMATION IS THE QUESTION ASKING YOU FOR?!

This is the most important thing to do so you dont do a lot a calculations and graphing for the
wrong answer. If you do not understand any of the questions, please seek assistance with the
concepts, including friends, teachers, family, or the internet. Good luck and happy calculations!


Criteria
NYM MM FM EX
Is able to calculate a data range, mean, median, mode, and outliers



Is able to create a bar, line, and circle graph to communicate




information
Is able to interpret graphs for information and use them to expand



their thinking
Is able to understand how statistics can be skewed to show only




specific information and is able to communicate this understanding
Is able to design a unique statistics study, collect the data, interpret



that data, and then communicate it

Activity 1 - Using Statistics

You are a weather forecaster and have been given the task of predicting the temperature on a
July 1st for the upcoming year. However, in a freak accident involving a baboon and a litre of
Mountain Dew, all your computing equipment has been destroyed. But never fear! Using your
weather forecaster logic, you can simply use the temperatures in previous years to predict what
the temperature will be this Canada Day.

Below is a collection of high temperatures from 2000-2015.
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
22 20 27 23 28 38 21 24 30 23 23 24 27 12 28 24

a. Create a line graph of the high temperatures on July 1st in Vancouver from 2000-2015.
o Horizontal Axis = Years
o Vertical Axis = Temperature
o Think about a title for the graph and labels for all axis. Think ahead about how
you will format the graph, the increments you will use, and anything else you will
need to prepare before creating your graph. Do a rough copy on one side of the
provided graph paper and a good copy on the other.

b. Using the data above, what is the data range of the high temperatures for July 1st over
the past 5 years? ____________________________.

Workspace b.







c. Organize the data into a chart from lowest temperature to highest.
Workspace c.

d. Using the data, the median of the data is ____________________________.

Workspace d.

e. Using the data, the mean of the data is ____________________________.

Workspace e.

f. As a weather forecaster, would you use the median or mode to report as the average
temperature for July 1st? ____________________________.
Why?
_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

g. Using the data, the median of the data is ____________________________.

Workspace g.





h. Create a line plot of the data. Using the line plot and the above line graph, are there any
outliers in the data set? If so, they are ____________________________.

Workspace h.

Activity 2 - Using Statistics (Expanded)

You have been given the job of deciding who the best player in the National Ice Hockey
Association (NIHA) is based on goals scored throughout the season. Below is a summary of
goals scored each month from October-April.
Player
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
Sidney
10
7
24
15
15
21
8
Bosby
Alex
5
5
13
15
17
21
24
Orechbin
Patrick
22
30
6
6
0
22
16
Bane

a. Calculate the following information for each player in the above data set:
Player
Sidney
Bosby
Alex
Orechbin
Patrick
Bane

Data Range

Mean

Median

Mode

Outliers

Workspace a.








b. Who is the best player in the league based on the mean? ________________________.
c. Who is the best player in the league based on the median? _______________________.
d. Who is the best player in the league based on the mode? ________________________.
e. Which measure would you use to determine the best player in the league? Why might
someone disagree with you?
______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

You are measuring your personal bests for a 100m sprint in preparation for an upcoming track
meet. Below are your times (in seconds) for the last 10 trials.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
9.85
10.21
9.69
9.82
9.72
9.84
9.80
9.72
9.74
9.58

f. Calculate the following information for the above data set:

Data Range
Mean
Median
Mode
Outliers







Workspace f.






g. Do you think you will be able to sprint 100m in under 9.80 seconds in the track meet?
Why?
______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________


Below is the sales data for your car dealership over the past 10 years. It shows the amount of
cars you sold every year from 2005-2015.
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
170
164
200
200
150
146
182
191
310
194

h. Calculate the following information for the above data set:

Data Range
Mean
Median
Mode
Outliers







Workspace h.

i.

In what circumstance might you use the mode to represent this set of data?

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

j. In what circumstance might you use the median to represent this set of data?
______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________
k. In what circumstance might you use the mean to represent this set of data?
______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Activity 3 Skewing Stats

In order to best serve their customers, the owners of Books-A-Million (BAM!) are looking to see
what types of books are being sold the most. They have gone back through their records and
made a list of data for the month of January. The data represents the number of children's book
and the number of adult books sold in four of the top genres.

Your Task: The BAM! Owners would like the present this data at a meeting with other
bookstore owners, but would like to make it easier to read. As an employee for BAM!, it
is your job to analyze the data in the table below and choose the appropriate graph to
show the information. Once you've chosen your graph, you will need to create the graph
and explain it to the owners.
Genre
Number of Children's Books Sold Number of Adult Books Sold
Mystery
55
70
Fantasy
90
64
Biography (Non-Fiction)
11
37
Adventure
48
45

a. What type of graph would you use to represent this data? ________________________.

b. Reason for choosing graph
______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

c. Create a graph of your choosing (line, bar, circle, double bar) using the BAM! sales data.
o Think about what information will go on each axis, as well as a title for the graph and
labels for all axis. Think ahead about how you will format the graph, the increments
you will use, and anything else you will need to prepare before creating your graph.
Do a rough copy on one side of the provided graph paper and a good copy on the
other.

d. You show the owners of BAM! the graph that you have made. What is being
communicated to them about their sales by viewing the graph that you made?
______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

e. The owners decide they want to focus on a different aspect of their sales. How could
you change what was being communicated and what would change? Use a different
graph that shows the data in a different way.
______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

f. Draw a different graph that communicates something different than your first graph?
o Think about what information will go on each axis, as well as a title for the graph and
labels for all axis. Think ahead about how you will format the graph, the increments
you will use, and anything else you will need to prepare before creating your graph.
Do a rough copy on one side of the provided graph paper and a good copy on the
other.

g. How do these two graphs differ?
______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

After reviewing the graphs you have made, the owners of BAM! decide that their sales are not
doing as well as they thought. Before they present their data at their meeting with other
bookstore owners they ask you to help them make their sales look better than they are.

h. How could you skew the sales data in order to make them look better?
______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________
i. Draw a skewed graph that misrepresents the BAM! sales data.
o Think about what information will go on each axis, as well as a title for the graph and
labels for all axis. Think ahead about how you will format the graph, the increments
you will use, and anything else you will need to prepare before creating your graph.
Do a rough copy on one side of the provided graph paper and a good copy on the
other.
j. Explain how your graph misrepresents the BAM! Sales data. What did you do to your
graph to make it skewed?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

Activity 4 - Place Based Statistics

You have been given the job of designing a study to explore the statistics of a specific outdoor
area. You will be conducting this study on our upcoming field trip. During the trip you will be
responsible for collecting data for the study you designed and then calculating the appropriate
stats. Here are some example ideas:

Types of trees
Types of animals
Size of trees
Types of stores
Colors of cars

a. What will you be studying?
______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

b. How will you measure it?
______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________
c. Are there any materials you will need to conduct your study?
______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

d. What are some example categories for your study?
______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

e. What do you expect to occur in your study?
______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

f. Why would it be important to know the results of you study?
______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

g. Create a data table of the statistics from your study.

Workspace g.

h. What kind of graph do you think would best represent your data? Why?
______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

i. Create a graph of your choosing (line, bar, circle) showing your results.
o Think about what information will go on each axis, as well as a title for the graph
and labels for all axis. Think ahead about how you will format the graph, the
increments you will use, and anything else you will need to prepare before
creating your graph. Do a rough copy on one side of the provided graph paper
and a good copy on the other.

j. Calculate the following information for the above data set:
Data Range
Mean
Median
Mode
Outliers







Workspace j.