In my Advanced Algebra/ Trig class we’ve been doing a unit on statistics. Recently, we covered the topic of dispersion and looked at ways to measure it (Variance and Standard deviation). To make it interesting we looked at Tim Tebow’s rushing stats for that magical year (2011) in which he was the quarterback of the Denver Broncos.
One of the things we found was that there was a huge variance and standard deviation compared to other running backs.
This led to an interesting discussion on which sports exhibit low dispersions when it comes to final scores. The sports mentioned were, soccer and tennis because the scores usually stay consistent. One student had mentioned basketball because the scores are so high but then one student was quick to point out that high scores have nothing to do with dispersion, “It’s about data consistency” he remarked.
This again led to a discussion on Tebow, one student said “You know what’s consistent about him? His terrible passing stats, he consistently sucks at passing and his passing stats show it” One student remarked “Yeah. That would mean his passing stats should have low measures of dispersion. But not in a good way”
Then another student said, “But what about his game against the Steelers?” Someone then pointed out that would be an outlier, something that is considered out of the norm.
In retrospect this was great discussion, throughout the discussion students exhibited a strong grasp of what dispersion is and how data affects the measures of dispersion.
One of the things we found was that there was a huge variance and standard deviation compared to other running backs.
This led to an interesting discussion on which sports exhibit low dispersions when it comes to final scores. The sports mentioned were, soccer and tennis because the scores usually stay consistent. One student had mentioned basketball because the scores are so high but then one student was quick to point out that high scores have nothing to do with dispersion, “It’s about data consistency” he remarked.
This again led to a discussion on Tebow, one student said “You know what’s consistent about him? His terrible passing stats, he consistently sucks at passing and his passing stats show it” One student remarked “Yeah. That would mean his passing stats should have low measures of dispersion. But not in a good way”
Then another student said, “But what about his game against the Steelers?” Someone then pointed out that would be an outlier, something that is considered out of the norm.
In retrospect this was great discussion, throughout the discussion students exhibited a strong grasp of what dispersion is and how data affects the measures of dispersion.
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