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Course
Content Overview The
topics for AP Statistics are divided into four major themes: exploratory
analysis I.
Exploratory
analysis of data makes use of graphical and numerical techniques
to study patterns and departures from patterns. In
examining distributions of
data, students should be able to detect important characteristics, such as
shape, location, variability, and unusual values. From careful observations of
patterns in data, students can generate conjectures about relationships among
variables. The notion of how one variable may be associated with another
permeates almost all of statistics, from simple comparisons of proportions
through linear regression. The difference between association and causation must
accompany this conceptual development throughout. Excel
Worksheets with Populations and ALL possible samples II.
Data
must be collected according to a well-developed plan if valid information
is to be obtained. If
data are to be collected to provide an answer to a question
of interest, a careful plan must be developed. Both the type of analysis that is
appropriate and the nature of conclusions that can be drawn from that analysis
depend in a critical way on how the data was collected. Collecting data in a
reasonable way, through either sampling or experimentation, is an essential step
in the data analysis process. IV.
Statistical
inference guides the selection of appropriate models. Models
and data
interact in statistical work: models are used to draw conclusions from data,
while the data are allowed to criticize and even falsify the model through
inferential and diagnostic methods. Inference from data can be thought of as the
process of selecting a reasonable model, including a statement in probability
language, of how confident one can be about the selection. |