Workshop Statistics: Discovery with Data, Fourth Edition

To the Student

How can statistics help identify people who cheat on their tax returns or ensure that a boat can hold the weight of its passengers? What advice can statistics offer to a waitress who wants to earn larger tips? Do people tend to scoop bigger portions of ice cream if they are given bigger bowls? How can we increase our life expectancy—does consuming more candy and sweets actually help?

You will investigate all these questions, and many more, as you learn the basic ideas and techniques of statistics. You will find that statistics has innumerable applications to real-world situations, both in everyday life and in nearly all fields of academic endeavor. The vast majority of examples and exercises concern real data from authentic studies. The issues range from completely silly, such as whether kissing couples tend to lean their heads to the left or right, to deadly serious, such as analyzing the results of draft lotteries for serving in the Vietnam War. You will also collect and analyze data about yourself and your classmates.

How to Approach Your Course

You will quickly discover that this is not a typical textbook. The book consists primarily of activities that have been carefully designed to lead you to discover fundamental statistical ideas for yourself, in collaboration with your peers and your instructor. The in-class activities ask a series of guided questions and leave space for you to record your answers directly in the book. We are asking you to construct your ...