b
Performance Task (Statistics)
(a) What I have learnt in class
During my time in class, I have learnt many things about statistics. For starters, I learnt what was statistics ->"The practice or science of collecting and analyzing numerical data in large quantities." During the process of learning more about statistics, I learnt many different ways to group them. For example,
"Histogram"
"Bar Graph"
"Line Graph"
I have also learnt that some graphs are more suitable for finding some specialties - mean, median, mode
The mean is the average of the things that you're finding. Eg, "What is the mean mark of the students?" If the total marks is 100 and the number of students is 50, the mean would be 100 / 50 = 2
The median is the middle numeral. Eg, "What is the median mark of the students?"
The numbers have to be in ascending order "45, 46, 47, 49, 50" in this case the middle numeral is 47, this is the median. ( Formula for odd numbers -> (number of numbers + 1) /2 )
If it was "45, 46, 47, 48" the median would be (46 + 47) / 2 = 46.5 (Formula for even numbers -> number of numbers /2, add the two numbers in front of the quotient you get then divide it by two.)
The mode is the number with the most frequency. Eg, "What is the mode of the marks?" Once again the numbers have to be in ascending order. "43, 44, 44, 44, 45, 45, 45, 46"
Number of 43 -> 1
44 -> 3
45 -> 3
46 -> 1
Thus the mode is 44 and 45.
What I have learnt during the performance task
During the process of the performance task, I have learnt many things. One of such is that one has always has to be vigilant and observant and scrutinize every data that he is given. For example, if the numbers do not add up there can be mistakes that will affect for further performance. One has to be very well organised at all times to ensure no mistakes, errors are made that can alter your results. For example, if your group's contacts are all mixed up you cannot contact them, your data are not in a certain order you will take an even longer time to consolidate all of them. One also has to be able to communicate clearly and get their point across without causing any misunderstandings. For example, if you say "Help me find the percentage of buses that came on time" Your group members may not be able to grasp it as you did not define the meaning of "Buses" it could have meant total number or a single bus number. One also has to have good leadership and be able to work well in a group, this will greatly enhance your group's chances of completing the task perfectly and may be a start to new friendships.
Role of statistics in Real Life
In real life, statistics can be used to measure, compare differences, similarities in stock markets, economy and even in death rates. One example is the difference in birth rate from the Year 2003 to the Year 2011.
Like in one incident, I saw a recipe that had percentages and ratios to compare the ingredients.
Graph of Birth Rate in Singapore (2003 to 2011) <- Click here
One personal experience in statistics was in Primary school when my From Teacher showed me my flux in my examinations -> In a line graph. It started from Primary 1 to Primary 6, there was a big difference from Primary 5 to Primary 6 as in an increase. However, sometimes in weather reports statistically may be wrong as there are just to many variables to be accounted for - wind speed, temperature, pollution etc. So it may vary from time to time.
(b) What I have experienced during my Group Work
During my group work, we distributed our roles. Jia Qi was the one who organised all of the data we gave him in different charts such as "Pie Charts", "Bar Charts" and others, which he then consolidated into numbers. Jonathan who is the group leader, allowed us to choose our roles ourselves so we did not face so many setbacks in timing, he analysed the data to confirm that our data was correct. Kai En and I did the reading which all of us did and wrote our inference and srcutinise the data to make sure that no error was made.
