What You Will Do:
- Watch the Khan Academy video: "Statistics Intro — Mean, Median, and Mode."
- Collect temperature data in the Desmos Graphing Calculator for your classroom's air temperature and for your hand.
- Calculate the following statistics: mean, median, mode, minimum, and maximum for both of your temperature data sets.
- Complete the Google Docs worksheet: "Descriptive Statistics," and turn it in according to your teacher's directions.
- Mean: the balance point of the data set.
- Median: the middle value when the data set is arranged from smallest to largest.
- Mode: the value that appears most often in the data set.
- Minimum: the smallest value in the data set.
- Maximum: the largest value in the data set.
- Click to watch this Khan Academy video to learn more about these concepts.
- Click this link Descriptive Statistics Worksheet to open the worksheet in a new browser tab. Click ‘Make a copy’ to save your version to your Google Drive.
- Click the Show Directions button in the upper-right corner to learn how to collect temperature data for this activity.
Directions:
- Use a USB-C cable to plug the Observe temperature sensor into your computer's USB port.
- Click the Connect button at the top-left corner of this page.
- Select the USB serial port (COM X) and click Connect. X varies by computer and is not important.
- Confirm that the status in the top-right corner says “Connected.”
- Select a Sample Rate of 5 Hz. The status will change to “Ready.”
- Set the sensor on the table and do not touch the metal part. This will measure your room’s temperature.
- Click Start Collection to log data; click Stop Collection to finish.
- Clear Graph resets; Capture Graph copies; Export / Import saves or opens a CSV file.
- Click the small gray triangle to the left of the data table to view the time (t) and temperature (T) columns and data.
- Click the Show Instruction button in the upper-right corner to continue the activity.
- When finished measuring, click the Zoom to Data button.
- To find the mean—the first type of average—of your data, click on the line below the data table and type m1 = mean(T). You can select mean from the functions menu or type it directly.
- Make a graph of the mean by typing y = m1. Notice that a horizontal line with the value of the mean is drawn over the data.
- Go to the next line and repeat steps 2 and 3, but instead of "mean," calculate the "median," the second type of average: m2 = median(T). You should see two different colored lines drawn over your data. Their values may be similar.
- Go to the next line and repeat steps 2 and 3, but instead of "median," calculate the "minimum": m3 = min(T). You should now see three different colored lines drawn over your data. They may have similar values since the data is not very spread out.
- Go to the next line and repeat steps 2 and 3, but instead of "min," calculate the "maximum": m4 = max(T). You should now see four different colored lines drawn over your data. They may have similar values.
- On the next line, select the functions button on the right, scroll down to VISUALIZATIONS, and select histogram. Enter histogram(T, 0.1). Next, click the keyboard icon to close the keypad, then click the small zoom icon at the bottom of the box. The histogram displays bar heights representing the count of each temperature reading at 1/10-degree intervals. The mode—the third type of average—is shown by the tallest bar in the histogram.
- Once you find the mode (the tallest bar), type on the next line y = followed by your mode value. You should now see a fifth line showing the third kind of average.
- Compare the five lines. Since the data did not change much, they all have similar values. Will this always be the case?
- When finished, click Capture Graph to copy your graph and paste it into your Google Docs worksheet.
- Scroll back up to the graph and click the Clear Graph button. This will delete the data in your table and reset the graph. You may want to export the data before clearing it if you plan to import and analyze it further in the future.
- Now you will compare the first data set with a new second data set.
- Click the Start button and collect about 10 seconds of the room’s temperature. Then, pick up and hold the sensor between your fingers to measure your fingers’ temperature for about 25 seconds. Notice that the temperature increases quickly at first, then slows as it approaches the temperature of your fingers. Next, set the sensor down on your desk and allow it to cool for about 25 seconds.
- When collection is finished, calculate all of the descriptive statistics by repeating the steps above in the Analyzing Your Data section.
- When finished, click Capture Graph to copy your graph and paste it into your Google Docs worksheet.
- Answer all of the questions in your Google Docs worksheet and follow your teacher’s directions for turning in your worksheet.