Basic Statistic Information

Math is Fun is a great website for introducing students to basic statistical information.  It has topics from "What is Data" to different ways to show data, to setting up surveys, to measures of central distribution, to measures of spread, probabilities, to types of distributions.  Basically everything you need in one place.

I really enjoy the organization of the topic and the way its handled.  For instance the lesson "What is Data?" begins straight off explaining qualitative vs quantitative complete with examples.  It further defines the two types of quantitative data with examples so students have a better idea of the difference.  The lesson takes time to talk about collecting the data including information on sampling.  The sentences are short with lots of pictures, highlighted words and at the end, there is 7 question quiz on the material presented.

Each question is multiple choice with a help button available. The help button takes the student back to the material.  Once the question is answered, the program gives immediate feedback telling you why its right or wrong and tells you the percent of people who got the question right.  I love the immediate feedback.  At the end of the quiz, you find out your overall percentage and which questions you missed.  Unfortunately, the questions remain static so if you retake the quiz, the questions are the same.  At the bottom of the page are links to more information.

In addition, there are four hands on activities spread throughout the unit.  One of the activities is on asking questions followed by a second activity on writing better questions which can be used to collect data.   These have lots of examples but still ask the students to create their own questions based on certain criteria.

Under measures of spread, you'll find the usual range but the topic also covers  quartiles and the interquartile ranges, percentiles, the difference between mean and statistical deviation with access to statistical deviation formulas and calculators.

Comparing data covers univariate and bivariate data, scatter plots, outliers, etc.   Furthermore, the site has advanced information sprinkled throughout the list, so students are able to explore topics in even more detail.  

I love the way each topic is set up with definitions, examples to support the definitions, links to important vocabulary and ideas.  The lessons are fairly short and are easy to understand.  I will be the first to admit that I only took one statistics class in college and that was quite a few years ago.  So when I have to teach a topic, I'm rusty on, I go here to get a quick review.

I want to use this site instead of the book because the material is easier to take notes on since most of my students are ELL and need the site's organization to take notes easier than trying to get them out of a book. 

Check it out and let me know what you think.