Lesson:
Day 1
The first part of this lesson is to sharpen your correlation skills.
To do this you will link to a page in the web that will have you guess the correlation of several scatter plots. You will need to make 40 matches and have the teacher verify your score. While you are making your matches you may want to take note of tendencies you notice and strange occurrences in the matches. After you have made all your matches you will need to go to the assessment page to answer some questions. When you have filled in the answers to the questions print out that page to hand in the teacher.
Day 2
The second part of this lesson involves finding a set of data and performing several calculations on and with that data to see two types of regression.
To do this you will look at an example of a data set and the necessary calculations. There are also links to good size data sets. When you have completed the calculations in Excel you should print out your spreadsheet and graphs. Again, go to the assessment page, print it out and hand in to the teacher after it is complete.
Day 3
The third part of the lesson involves seeing the effects of an outlier on the regression line.
You will do this using the data you found in Day 2 and also by linking to a site on the web that will allow you to see immediately what happens to the regression line. After taking note of what is happening, go to the assessment page, print it out, fill it in and hand it in.
Day 4
The fourth part of this lesson involves working more with correlation and being able to explain in more than one way why a set of data has high or low correlation.
You will do this by first investigating a set of data, then using a set of data collected by your class, and then by finding your own data on the web. When you are finished making calculations with your data, print out the assessment sheet, fill it in and hand it in.
Day 5
The final part of this lesson involves answering the question you originally posed in the motivational activity. You find the 'goodness of fit' number for the data you found and then answer some questions about your data. For the assessment today, you should answer all questions in a word processing document and then hand it in to the teacher.