There are two major branches of statistics in an elementary statistics course:
descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics involves
describing the data that is available while inferential statistics involves
drawing conclusions about a population based on a sample.
The purpose of this site is to help a student understand the different kinds
of descriptive statistics. Understanding means more than just knowing how to
find the numerical values, it also includes knowing when each measure is appropriate
to use.
- Objectives
- The user will be able to find several descriptive statistics by hand
or using technology. Formulas and step by step instructions are given.
- The user will understand the different statistical measures and when
it is appropriate or not appropriate to use them.
- Choose a data set
The site is designed so that you may enter your own data or you may use a
set of data that is gathered real-time (assuming the connection is up) from
the Internet. In either case, you may make changes to the data and see how
it affects the statistics. You may also get help on each of the statistics
by clicking the question mark next to the major headings.
- Water Level. Real-time data supplied by the
US Geological Service for the Sangamon River in IL, the Chocolate Bayou
in TX, or the Mississippi River in MO. You may choose the period between
data points and the time frame of the sample.
- Enter your own. Enter your own data set.
- View the explanations
- Test your understanding
Go to James Jones' ICTCM page.