The End-of-Chapter problems are excellent for testing your ability on the topics of that chapter. This is a drawback, because you know exactly what chapter to study. To eliminate that weakness, I also have assignments that cover more than just the current chapter. These assignments test if you have a broader understanding of statistics.
To help you in doing these activities, here are examples of activities from previous terms.
Testing Objectives
All assignment have objectives being tested. These practicum activities test that you are able to…
- determine the proper statistical procedure to use;
- correctly perform that statistical procedure;
- defend your choices of procedure and data;
- provide appropriate graphics to support your conclusion; and
- present your results using proper writing.
The Data File
Data is the life blood of statistics. The data file for most of these example practicum activities is the weatherData.xlsx data file. You can download it using the following link:
The Practice Practicum Activities
Weather Statistics. This practicum activity covers the different variable types, measures of center, and measures of spread. To succeed here, you must understand the first part of the course, Chapters 1 through 3.
Random Variables in Life. This practicum activity provides variables and you provide the most likely distribution, both name and parameter values. The possible distribtions are the Binomial, Poisson, Hypergeometric, Uniform, Exponential, and Normal. Each of those six has their own parameters that you must estimate from the data. This activity could follow Chapter 7.
Statistical Inference I. This practicum activity provides two research questions. You provide answers to both. This will require that you understand one-sample analysis, both for the population mean and for the population proportion. That means this activity can follow Chapter 9.
Statistical Inference II. This practicum activity provides three research questions. You provide answers to all three. This requries that you understand one- and two- sample procedures as well as regression. Here, since this activity is a summative activity, it should follow Chapter 13.
Testing Mars Chocolate. This practicum activity provides a research question. You provide an answer to it. To obtain that answer, you will collect your own data, tabulate that data, and compare your observed distribution to the hypothesized distribution. To succeed here, you will need to understand the Goodness-of-Fit test of Chapter 12.
That is all! Four of the five examples use the weather data file. The other relies on data that you collect. In each case, you use statistics to obtain the answer.
Enjoy!