How to Learn Statistics in Math

Statistical analysis can help non-professionals understand trends such as the price of gas and oil.

Statistics is a complex field in mathematics that deals with the analysis of trends. Statisticians take data and analyze a wide range of mathematical properties to those trends. For example, if you want to know the probability you would win at in a gambling game, you would employ statistics. But statistics has other far-reaching applications. According to the Mathematics and Statistics department at Hunter College. "statisticians are needed in government, education, science, social science, medicine, engineering, and finance." Mathematics teachers must communicate statistics clearly to their students because of the complex properties found in statistics.

Instructions

1. Start out by giving real-life statistical examples. Since statistics is used in a wide range of practical and professional fields, you can discuss with your class an example where statistics is utilized. A good example is the census and how the government analyzes and reports statistical data regarding incomes, demographics and household sizes from data.

2. Ask students to brainstorm about measurable examples. This gives your students an opportunity to know how statistics is applied in situations. The practical basis behind knowing what statistics are used for helps students know what solutions to look for in statistics.

3. Discuss simple forms of statistics. A basic statistical analysis is a percentage; you can utilize division or fractions to show this. Lay out fractions such as 1/2 or 3/4. Divide 1 by 2 and 3 by 4. The decimal numbers you have, 0.50 and 0.75 respectively, are really 50 percent and 75 percent. Connect this idea to a student's basic understanding. If you have 12 objects and you take away six of those objects, you now have 1/2 or 50 percent of the objects.

4. Explain the basic foundations of statistics. With the basic idea of how statistics is connected by math, you can begin by explaining textbook statistics terms such as medians, modes, means and standard deviation. Be patient with your students, however. Even though the students already know how statistics works, the terms and variables that are used in the science may take a while to work.

5. Explain each statistic concept mathematically. For example, means, or the average, is calculated when you add up your variables and divide by the number of variables. So, if you want to determine the average age of the class, show the class the sum of all of their ages divided by the number of students in the class. That number is the mean of the class. With this example, you can also show the mode, which is the age most seen in all the variables.

6. Create group projects. Statistics, especially in the professional world, requires multiple professionals to study data, not just one statistician. With group projects, students can reinforce and help each other with statistical analysis.

7. Have work problems ready for each group project. The work problems should have numerical variables ready. The problems should be simple problems that use averages or fractions.

References

• Hunter College.edu: Department of Mathematics and Statistics
• Learner: Statistics as a Problem-Solving Process
• Learner: Statistics as Problem Solving
• Learner: Data Organization and Representation
• University of Toledo.edu: Supplemental Instruction