Introduction

Some of these activities may pose challenges as they require thinking about numbers and concepts in new ways. For this reason, these activities will be graded based on completion. As long as you make an attempt at each question and work through the problems, you will receive full credit for the assignment. The primary aim of these activities is to learn about complex statistical principles in a fun and manageable way, and problem-solving and trial-and-error are integral to the learning process. Instead of worrying about getting every answer perfect, these assignments are designed so you practice the techniques of numeracy. If an answer is slightly off, I will provide feedback to help guide you towards the correct answer. You are then welcome to continue working on the assignment to improve your understanding. At the very least, I highly recommend reviewing the comments I provide to understand any mistakes made and/or to verify your understanding of the material.

Activities: In the book titled: Innumeracy: Mathematics Illiteracy And Its Conseq. - (REV)01 by: John Allen Paulos

1. Does Paulos conclude descriptive statistics or inferential statistics as more interesting? (p. 141) Explain his reasoning. Do you agree or disagree with his conclusion? (2 pts)
2. What do you think of Paulos' description and definition of Type I and Type II errors? (p. 145) Do you think you could enhance them and how? (3 pts)
3. How does Paulos' discussion of confidence intervals and polls relate to your thoughts regarding this week's discussion (Election Polls Gone Wrong)? Does Paulos' concerns shed light on how the 2016 election polls were indeed wrong? (3 pts)
4. Do you think Paulos' anger (p. 178) toward innumeracy is warranted? (2 pts)
5. Name one thing that you learned from this book and will take with you moving forward to avoid mistakes of innumeracy. (2 pts)