MATH221 All Weeks Discussions (July 2019)

MATH 221 Statistics for Decision Making

Week 1 Discussion

DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS

If you were given a large data set, such as the sales over the last year of our top 100 customers, what might you be able to do with these data? What might be the benefits of describing the data?

Alternative: Look for examples of descriptive statistics in the news or on websites. Then post a link to that publication or site, note the statistic used and determine if it was an appropriate use of that statistic.

MATH 221 Statistics for Decision Making

Week 2 Discussion

PROBABILITIES IN REAL WORLD

Look online and find an article published within the past 4 weeks that includes a reference to probabilities, means, or standard deviations. These articles might be discussing weather events, investing outcomes, or sports performance, among many other possible topics.

Your first post should include a summary of the article and what numbers you are highlighting from that article. Also include a link to the actual article. In your replies to other students, describe specific decisions that the statistic might influence and whether a different statistic might be more appropriate.

MATH 221 Statistics for Decision Making

Week 3 Discussion

DISCRETE PROBABILITY VARIABLES

For this discussion you will use technology to create a short 1-2 minute multimedia post/presentation.

Suggestions: Narrated PowerPoint, recorded video (.mp4), Screencast-O-Matic (.mp4), or a similar tool of your choice. Video can be recorded directly within a post as well, but make sure to plan out in advance what you are going to say/show. There should be a visual component as well as audio, so if you are using a webcam for the video that only shows you speaking, please attach your PowerPoint slide(s) (or screenshot images of them) to the post as well so everyone can see them.

In your short presentation, you will be describing an example that uses discrete probabilities or distributions. Provide an example that follows either the binomial probabilities or any discrete probability distribution, and explain why that example follows that distribution. In your responses to other students, make up numbers for the example provided by that other student, and ask a related probability question. Then show the work (or describe the technology steps) and solve that probability example.

For more information about Narrated PowerPoint, access the Student Resources section of Course Resources under the Introduction & Resources module heading, and look for the heading that corresponds to the tool you want to use. For all media posts in this course, please include a brief written synopsis to inform your classmates what the main point or purpose is that the linked, attached, or embedded media addresses.

MATH 221 Statistics for Decision Making

Week 4 Discussion

INTERPRETING NORMAL DISTRIBUTIONS

Assume that a population is normally distributed with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. Would it be unusual for the mean of a sample of 3 to be 115 or more? Why or why not?

MATH 221 Statistics for Decision Making

Week 5 Discussion

CONFIDENCE INTERVAL CONCEPTS

Look in the newspapers, magazines, and other news sources for results of a survey or poll that show the confidence interval, usually shows as a +/- some amount. Describe the survey or poll and then describe the interval shown. How does knowing the interval, rather than just the main result, impact your view of the results?

MATH 221 Statistics for Decision Making

Week 6 Discussion

HYPOTHESES IN THE REAL WORLD

Consider a business of any type. What is a situation where a hypothesis test might help make a decision? Describe the situation. Then you or someone in a reply can make up numbers for that situation and someone else can solve it.

MATH 221 Statistics for Decision Making

Week 7 Discussion

REGRESSION

Suppose you are given data from a survey showing the IQ of each person interviewed and the IQ of his or her mother. That is all the information that you have. Your boss has asked you to put together a report showing the relationship between these two variables. What could you present and why?