AP Statistics: An Overview

How is statistics useful in the real world?

Pharmaceuticals/Healthcare Statisticians design clinical trials, collect information about drugs, and test thousands of chemical compounds to figure out which ones cure ailments. Research on disease cause and prevention

Insurance Companies Use statistics to determine the insurance rates that its customers pay This field is more specifically known as “actuary science.”

Climate Change Melting of glaciers Rising sea level

Research and Development An AP Statistics student from last year said her mom worked researching the safety of car seats in Sweden one summer. She used lots of statistics! An AP Statistics student from two years ago worked in a lab last summer determining the effect of stress on mice. He used lots of statistics to analyze his data.

Marketing and Advertising For example, NetFlix is constantly changing small things on their website and monitoring which sign up phrases make people more likely to subscribe (sign up now vs. start now) Direct mail (don’t throw away vs. open by) (nothing on envelope vs. urgent)

Data is the new Oil Forbes Article

The government is one of the largest employers of statisticians. The Department of Transportation uses statisticians to analyze traffic congestion The Department of Justice uses statisticians to The FDA uses statistics to put restrictions on certain foods that come into question. (Julie) To pass laws of any kind, evidence of why the law needs to be passed is a necessity.

Cell Phones and Driving Research from the University of Utah Video: The New York Times Distracted Driving

Experiments vs. Observational Studies Experiment: Deliberately imposes some treatment on individuals to observe their responses Observational Study: observes individuals and measures variables of interest but does not attempt to influence the response.

Which type of study is better? An experiment is better because it enables the researcher to control for some of the confounding variables. If we simply observe drivers who get in accidents when they are on their cell phones, what variables might get in the way? Weather, type of road, how many people are in the car, type of car

Communication It is essential for statisticians to be good communicators. Once they collect and analyze the data, they need to be able to communicate their results to a non-statistical person.

Gallup Polls Regularly conducts public opinion polls in more than 140 countries Reliable data since survey methods involve random sampling and careful wording of questions www.gallup.com

Population vs. Sample Population: the entire group of individuals that we want information about Sample: the part of the population that we will actually examine in order to gather information Find an interesting Gallup Poll and determine the sample and the population

AP Statistics Data Collection https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dGFxc3RnTmpVeXFfMDRJMlhRM0xLenc6MQ Visit my Web Page to find the link