aim of learning statistics
The main aim of learning statistics is to be able to identify important and usable information from any piece of given information. The information is normally provided in a literary device and it is upon the reader to come up with the meaningful data after studying the information given. Out of the statistical information that you derive from the text, not all of it can be tested with complete surety. When scrutinizing such information it is necessary to first identify whether the information has any form of bias. The bias can be identified from the data where the writer provides the favorable data and ignores the unfavorable data. From the information the reader can identify biased information from how the sample that was examined was selected. The reader should also consider the size of the sample and whether it has any significance. The number examined should be considerable in order to make meaning of the sample results. The reader should also be keen to identify whether there is a measure of reliability in the information. The reader should also be careful o note whether the subject of the question was changed in order to achieve a certain outcome. The change of subject makes it difficult to make comparisons on different types of data. In order to make effective comparison, the question or topic of study should remain the same throughout the study.
A study was carried out by the government in a certain district in order to examine the extent of poverty in the country. The study was meant to come up with the level of poverty, the number of individuals living in poverty, the causes of poverty and finally develop solutions to deal with the menace. The researchers however did not achieve the desired results from the study and this was mainly contributed to by the faults that occurred during the study. The number of individuals who gave their opinion was very small and would not therefore constitute a significant percentage of the whole district. The questions asked to them were closely related but not the same. This made it difficult to compare the results from them. The final figures that were present only showed the favorable results of those not affected by poverty while the aim of the study was to get information from those affected by the poverty.
The following is a lesson plan that I would use to teach the chapter to my students.
Date Grade Level: 7-12 Subject: Math.
1. Objectives of the lesson:
· To ensure the students can identify usable data from a text
· To ensure the students can identify biased data from unbiased data
· To ensure the students know the significant data
2. procedure
· The teacher will read a text and identify usable data
· The teacher will identify biased data from the text
· The teacher will tell whether the information is significant
· To help the students use the information in calculations
· The teacher will read a text and identify usable data with the assistant of the student
· The teacher will identify biased data from the text with the help of the students
· The teacher will tell whether the information is significant with the children
End of lesson
· The student will confidently identify biased, significant and usable data on their own
Individual task:
· The teacher will issue a text for the student to identify the information on their own in form of groups of four students each
Necessary materials and teaching aids:
· Journal article
· Class textbooks
· newspapers
Student assessment
· The teacher will issue a test at the end of the lesson for the students to handle