Statistics

Introducing a Statistical Package

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INTRODUCING THE USE OF A STATISTICAL PACKAGE To understand articles on statistical experiments, it is useful for the students to have some experience exploring datasets For this purpose we have the students use a simple statistical package in the Chance course. In this unit we will describe how we introduce the students to the use of a statistical package. Three packages that we have used are Minitab, Data Desk, and JMP. Of course, which package you use will be depend on your own preferences and what is available at your school. Our presentation here is based on Data Desk; however, it will be easy to modify what we do for another statistical package.

Obviously, what follows is not intended to be a complete guide to Data Desk, but rather an illustration of strategies we use to introduce computing early in the Chance course.
On the first day of class we ask the students to fill out a survey to get some information about their fellow students. In the 1996 Chance class we used the following survey. Survey given to students in a Chance class at Dartmouth in the Fall of 1996. 1. How many CD's do you own? 2. Which year are you? (97, 98, 99, or 00) 3. Are you male or female? (M = male, F = female) 4. What is your height in inches? 5. What is your shoe size (length, not width)? 6. Record your pulse rate (the number of beats in one minute) in class or in a similar setting. 7. Are you left or right handed? (0 = left, 1 = right, 2 = ambidextrous) 8. Do you smoke? (0 = no, 1 = occasionally, 2 = regularly) 9. What is your birth order? (1 = oldest or only child, 2 = second oldest, etc.)

10. How many siblings (i.e., brothers and sisters) do you have? 11. What was your SAT verbal score? What was your SAT math score?

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12. What is your current gpa (grade point average)? 13. On average, how many hours of television or videos do you watch per week?...