Define your topic

Select a real-life context you are familiar with, or a fictitious 'real-life-like' context, where you can identify an issue that can be solved using descriptive statistics. There are endless options that you could choose, but make sure it is easy to measure quantitatively for multiple instances. It is recommended that you check the suitability of your topic with your teacher.

Step 2: Collect your data

Select a sample of a minimum of 30 data points.

Step 3: Analyse your data and write a report

Write results in a report, using formal language in the third person, setting out details of every step of the process and all relevant mathematical calculations. You should use the following structure, headings and content requirements (it is recommended that you use the report template provided on Interact2):

Title Pageno page number- give your research a snappy title and include all the details normally required for an assignment submission (name, ID, subject, class, assessment no., and date)

Executive Summarypage (i)- include a brief summary of the research undertaken along with the findings (note: this is a summary of the overall report, NOT specifically an introduction)

Table of Contentspage (ii)- include all section and sub-section titles with their section numbers and page numbers (note: the specific page numbering sequence used by reports)

1. Introductionpage (1) (page numbering then continues as normal)- introduce your context and topic and explain what your research has set out to achieve (one-two paragraphs)

2. Issue - provide the specific question you are trying to answer with your research and descriptive statistics (one concise sentence)

3. Method- include:

3.1 Data - detail how the chosen data is quantitative and pertains to your issue

3.2 Method - outline the method you used to collect data

3.3 Reliability - identify and review any problems and/or potential influencing factors that may affect the reliability of your data. If no problems or influencing factors - why?

4. Dataset- include:

4.1 Raw data - include raw data along with information that may prove useful, e.g. time or place collected (must have a sample of at least 30 data points)

4.2 Frequency table - include a frequency table for raw data showing total count of data points

4.3 Stem and leaf - include stem and leaf plot (table)

5. Descriptive statistics

5.1 Statistics - calculate the mean, median, mode, rangeandstandard deviation (use a calculator or Excel to calculate the standard deviation) for your dataset. Present this information in a table along with a description of the statistic andALL of your workings.

5.2 Analysis - discuss what each of these calculated values tells you about your sample and the broader population that your sample comes from (one-two paragraphs)

5.3 Results - include a graph that best displays your dataset e.g. column graph, line graph, etc. Discuss what this graph shows you about your dataset (two-three sentences)

6. Conclusion- answer your question (as stated in section 2 above) and summarise your key findings and implications of the research (one paragraph)

7. References - if used, include sources you used to collect your data and/or report

statistics is the science of collection, organisation, and the interpretation of data. Some consider statistics to be a mathematical science which collects, analyses, explains and presents data. Others consider it a branch of maths which is concerned with collecting and interpreting data.

Either way, statistics are used widely in our lives.

We see statistics used constantly in sports. What would summer cricket be without the statistics of the worm, the run chase statistics, or batting/bowling averages etc? Likewise, tennis, football, car racing etc all heavily rely on statistics. As you will see in Module 10, probability has a branch that is based on statistics.

It is very important that we are statistically literate.

We need to know what the media is talking about when they talk about the average.

The last thing you would want is to be publicly ridiculed for saying something like:

• The average Aussie has less than 2 arms!
  • The mean number of arms is less than 2, but the mode (most common) is 2 arms.
• Or in 2012 when the Chief Inspector of schools in the UK stated that 1 in 5 primary students were not reaching the national average for English!
  • Once you realise that average should refer to the middle, or 50% this concern seems nonsense. (Rather talking about meeting a standard would be appropriate in this case!)

But even if you are never in the public eye, being able to understand what statistics mean when you encounter them will assist you.

Learning objectives

Upon completion of this module you should be able to:

1. Differentiate between qualitative and quantitative data;
2. Understand measures of centrality in a dataset and calculate mean, median, and mode for a dataset;
3. Understand measures of spread in a data set and calculate range and standard deviation (using a calculator) for a dataset;
4. Use Excel for basic analysis and descriptive statistics for a dataset; and
5. Generate stem and leaf plots, box and whiskers plots, as well as bar graphs and pie graphs in Excel.