Is There A Difference Unit Portfolio

Part 1: Unit Summary

Learning Statement
Tell the story of how you made sense of the different concepts throughout this unit. Be sure to hit all of the following talking points, and
include all activities/worksheets that are applicable. ​You must use 2 artifacts/section (worksheets, notes, class discussions) from
this unit as evidence.

1. Discuss the concept of sample, population, hypothesis, null hypothesis and sample fluctuation​ (Assignments: Try This Case, Who
Gets Measles, Who Gets A’s, Quality of the Investigation, Two Different Differences, Changing The Difference, Questions Without
Answers,)​.
2. Discuss how to use standard deviation and normal distribution to determine whether a difference is significant. ​(Assignments: Mean
and Standard Deviation Problem Set, Bacterial Culture, Decisions With Deviation)
3. Discuss how to calculate χ2 and how it can be used to measure “weirdness.” ​(Assignments: How Does χ2 Work?, Measuring
Weirdness With χ2 , A Probability Table, Late In the Day)
4. Discuss how to use proportional reasoning to determine expected values in a two population case and how to apply χ2 to a two
population and theoretical model problem. . ​(Assignments: What Would You expect?, Who’s Absent?, Big and Strong, and
Delivering Results,​ ​Paper or Plastic, Is it Really Worth It)
Part 1: Unit Summary Answers Here
Beautiful examples (Your assignment work Amazing Narratives ( Answers to each of How I feel about my preparedness:
here! Evidence) the Discussion Questions)

To begin our unit we looked at some of the

mathematical concepts related to statistics
such as sample, population, hypothesis,
null hypothesis, and sample fluctuation. A
sample is a group taken from a population.
A population is all of the things you are
studying. For example, if I was studying 5
students from the 11th grade, my
population would be the entire 11th grade
and my sample would be those 5 students.
A hypothesis is a question you start your
experiment with that begins with “There is a
difference”. For the 11th grade students, my
hypothesis could be “There is a difference
in the study habits of male and female 11th
grade students”. A null hypothesis is the
opposite of the hypothesis, what it is trying
to disprove. In this case it would be “There
is NO difference in the study habits of male
and female 11th grade students”. Sample
fluctuation is exactly what it sounds like:
different data from identical tests because
of differences in the sample taken.

I feel confident with these concepts. Most of

them are things I was already familiar with,
or were concepts I had encountered but
never put a name to.

 
 
 
 
2. The standard deviation of a set of data is
the amount it varies from the mean in either
direction (+/-). One standard deviation
(denoted by the Greek symbol sigma) away
from each side of the mean represents 68%
of the data set. Two standard deviations is
95% and three is 99.99%. If you know the
mean and the standard deviation of a
dataset, you can judge whether a certain
result is abnormal and compare different
products against each other. All the
standard deviation concepts talked about
above hold true only if the dataset is
normally distributed, which is a bell curve.

I already had some experience with

standard deviation and the bell curve from
9th grade, but this unit allowed me to go
deeper with it which was helpful. I felt
confident coming in, and I feel confident in
my newfound knowledge coming out.
3.Chi-squared (χ2 ) is a method of
calculating the “weirdness” of a set of data.
In other words, it can tell you if the data is
behaving in line with how it should
theoretically. Chi-squared is calculated by
squaring the difference of the expected and
observed values, then dividing that by the
expected value. Then, you add together all
the different combinations of observed and
expected values. This will give you a
number equal to or greater than one which
can indicate the probability of the null
hypothesis being true. A high chi-squared
means the null hypothesis is most probably
not true, and a low one means it almost
definitely is (although this is to be judged on
a case by case basis).
Chi-squared was totally new to me, and I
was a little confused at first with the idea of
adding all the different values together.
However, by practicing, I got that concept
down and was able to do the calculations
well.

4. A specific type of problem we applied the

chi-squared test to quite a bit was a two
population problem. In that, you are
comparing two populations and have to
determine whether or not a hypothesis is
true. In order to do that, you need to know
the expected (theoretical) values for the
case. This is done using simple proportional
reasoning. You look at the total of one
population, divide it by the total sample size
and then multiply it by the total of the other
population. From there you establish your
expected chart and can calculate the
chi-squared value for the dataset. This in
turn allows you to figure out the probability
of the null hypothesis being true.

I initially struggled with the proportional

reasoning because I would get populations
mixed up or would be too bogged down in
expressing what I was doing as an equation
to synthesize it properly. Once I took a step
back and realized it was just a matter of
simple proportions, I figured it out and I was
able to do the problems easily.

THE END