“How to lie with statistics”: 1st Post

Posted by Alhaji Koita in Statistics - Miles - B on

​​Group members present during the discussion 

Adam F, Alhaji K, Lala D, Michael

Here is the link to our Audio

What your club discussed 
In the discussion we talked about what the author points were in each chapter. Something that we always wanted to manage in the discussion, was making sure each main point was met. We talked about the points we didn’t understand we used that to our advantage it indeed helped move the discussion along.

How you discussed it
It was an open floor for all of us to speak. It really was all hands on deck for everyone to talk.

Any points of conflict/disagreement in discussion
None that interrupted the discussion.

Questions that came up as a result of the discussion

What is Old Gold?
Where does the author find his studies?
Is it possible to connect the findings in this book with other themes in class?


Comments (1)

Mark Miles (Teacher)
Mark Miles

Good first podcast. Door closing and background noises were occasionally distracting. Where's Adam? Also, make sure to post the actual audio in the blog.

For next time, please respond to the following questions: <ol> <li>Choose one of the quotations inside the front cover and discuss how it relates to the Introduction.</li> <li>List as many sources of sample bias as you can that are mentioned in Chapter 1 and provide an example of each.</li> <li>Put the second paragraph on Page 18 (“A river cannot….”) into your own words.</li> <li>What is the advantage of a stratified random sample and what difficulties does it pose, according to this chapter?</li> <li>Which kind of “average” (statisticians call all three “measures of central tendency”) would give me the best way to compare the performance of two classes of a required math course? Why?</li> <li>Explain why advertisers often rely on a very small sample to substantiate their claims.</li> <li>What does the author mean on Page 45 when he says, “Hardly anybody is exactly normal in any way…?”</li> <li>The author suggests that some reported differences may not be real differences at all and others, even though they can be shown to be real differences, should still be ignored. Explain how each of these two situations can arise and give an example of each.</li> </ol> Finally, when discussing chapters 3, 5, or 6, incorporate the following article into your discussion:

http://gizmodo.com/how-to-lie-with-data-visualization-1563576606

Also, each member of your group should find an article online containing a misleading graph and discuss it during the podcast (be sure to talk about why it’s misleading!). Be sure to include a link to all articles in the text of your post of the podcast that corresponds to chapters 3, 5, or 6.