Resources by Making Statistics Vital

Measures of Centre and Spread: Cricketing MMM

In this activity, students are required to find the mean, median and mode from a data set, from a frequency table, from a grouped frequency table containing continuous data and from a grouped frequency table containing discrete data.

This resource is part of the Making Stats Vital collection from Jonny...

Measures of Centre and Spread: Do We Divide by n or n-1?

This activity is designed to enable students to gain a deeper understanding of the topic of variance and the difference between finding the population variance and the sample variance. Students might expect that the sum of the deviations would be divided by n when finding the sample variance instead of (n-1). The...

Measures of Centre and Spread: Measures of Spread

In this activity, students are introduced to the bee academy. A small set of data is provided and members of the bee academy explain how to find the range, the interquartile range, the mean deviation from the mean, the mean squared deviation from the mean, the sample variance and the standard deviation.

This...

Measures of Centre and Spread: Spot the Error

In this activity students are presented with a calculation of the standard deviation of seven athletes. Students are asked to comment upon the result. It is intended that students will spot that the standard deviation is too large given the data, but can students spot the error? This resource highlights the errors...

Probability: Balls in a Box

The presentation presents a box containing m white balls and n black balls. Students are asked to explore the probability that if two balls are chosen consecutively, without replacement, the two balls are the same colour. A spreadsheet simulating the situation is provided to enable students to experiment. The...

Probability: Biased Dice Independence

Students are presented with a normal six sided dice students and are asked to show that the probability of two events 'the score is odd' and 'the score is prime' are not independent. Students are then given conditions for the probabilities of the scores on a biased dice and are challenged to discover if it is now...

Probability: Random Independence

This activity involves the quest to show whether two events are independent. Students are required to use a Venn diagram and to apply logic to find all possible combinations of values within the diagram and thus calculate the probability of event A and event B being independent events. The answer provides a full...

Probability: the Colin and Phil Problem

In this activity Colin and Phil take it in turns to roll a dice. The winner is the first to throw a six. Students are asked to investigate conditional probability to find the probability of each player winning and hence determine whether the game is fair. The presentation provides a complete solution before...

Probability: the Independent School

In this activity students are presented with a variety of information regarding the number of students who study mathematics and/or physics. Students are asked to use this information to complete a Venn diagram. A complete solution to the problem is explained before a series of related challenges are posed...

Probability: the Two Dominoes

Students are challenges to estimate the probability that if two dominoes are picked, at random, from a standard pack of dominoes that at least one number on each domino will match. The simulation on sheet one is then used to generate experimental results to predict whether their estimation is supported. Sheet two...