Practicum Example 1: Weather Statistics
![[Crutchfield Hall]](practicums/crutchfieldHall.jpg "Crutchfield Hall") | |
Crutchfield Hall at Oklahoma State University. The boy’s dormatory was located at the northwest corner of Hester and Athletic. What is there now? Photo courtesy the Library of Congress. |
The purpose of this practicum activity is to test if you can determine the correct graphic, measure of center, measure of spread, and measure of correlation for the given variables and combination of variables.
Framing the Research
From restaurants to television studios, many businesses are dependent upon the weather in some form. This example has you answer some important questions regarding the weather.
Collecting the Data
The data for this example is the weatherData.xlsx data file. If you do not use Excel, your spreadsheet software should still be able to import the data. Also, if you do not have Excel, feel free to download it from the OSU IT department. I strongly suggest downloading the data into a folder dedicated to examples for this course.
This dataset contains seven variables measured for each day at the Stillwater Airport (SWO). Those variables are Fog, Rain, and Snow (whether there was fog, rain, or snow that day), AvgTemp (average temperature in Fahrenheit), AvgVisibility (average visibility in miles), MaxTemp (high temperature in Fahrenheit), and MinTemp (low temperature in Fahrenheit). The data run from January 1, 2014, until December 31, 2016.
Analyzing the Data
With the data, please do the following:
- Calculate the correct measure of center and of spread for the following variables:
- Fog;
- Rain;
- AvgTemp;
- AvgVisibility;
- MaxTemp; and
- MinTemp.
- Calculate the appropriate measure of correlation between the following pair of variables:
- MinTemp and MaxTemp
- Create appropriate univariate graphics for the following variables:
- Fog;
- AvgTemp; and
- MinTemp.
- Create an appropriate bivariate graphic for the relationship between the following pair of variables:
- MinTemp and MaxTemp
Interpreting the Results
Interpret the measures of center in terms of how a weather forecaster may use them. Interpret the correlation and the bivariate graphic in terms of how a weather forecaster may use them.
Do the above before looking at the solutions. Jumping straight to the solutions provides almost no help for you. The benefit from practice is actually doing the practice. Do not cheat yourself.