1. Using Statistical Tools to Teach High School Science & Mathematics By Steve Deckard John Pantana Scott Watson Liberty University

2. The teacher asked, " Can you give me a good example of how heat expands things and cold contracts them?" "Well," one alert pupil answered, "the days are much longer in summer.'' Error Messages Microsoft is trying to add some humor to its error messages in Windows 2000 and up. Here are a couple of examples: Printer not responding; Got a pen and paper handy? 3 things are certain in life: Taxes, death, and data loss. Guess which has occurred? Some Things to Ponder

3. Menu Driven & point and click T radeoff in statistical software between its "ease of learning" and its "power". Fathom DataDesk SAS SPSS SPLUS or R XLIPSTAT Review of Software Packages for teaching High School Statistics great number of powerful and fast statistical tools as well as data management capabilities. Middle Ground ARC MiniTab Ecel - Megastat

4. High Scorers On Ease of Use Characteristics Fathom Predominantly a teaching tool. No ANOVA or multiple regression. Easy-to-use simulation is animation. Contains many features that make this possibly the first-choice for classroom demonstrations. Runs on PC and Mac (Classic). OSX version is in the works. http://www.keycollege.com/catalog/titles/fathom.html DataDesk DataDesk can also be bundled with ActivStats, in which case it becomes a fairly complete textbook/software package. ActivStats is a wonderful reference book/self-guided learning tool. http://www.datadesk.com/ Chart One

5. Arc user-friendly (i.e. menu-driven) package. ARC does one thing very, very well: linear regression. In fact, more of linear regression than you probably thought existed. It was developed to support a book: Applied Regression Including Computing and Graphics, R. Dennis Cook and Sanford Weisberg, 1999 John Wiley & Sons. This is a wonderful book, but somewhat beyond the High School level. Still, you might enjoy it. The software is free and runs on PCs and Macs (but not OSX). Minitab - I have limited direct experience with this one. However, I know it's fairly easy to learn and fairly comprehensive. It has been around for awhile and so has an established track record. It can also be bundled with ActivStats. Not sure whether it runs on Macs, though. Version 14.2 is most recent Minitab.com Middle of the Road Packages

6. The following enhancements and design changes have been made to MINITAB 14.2: Users may now edit strings, delete rows or columns, and assign different fonts to header and body text in legends and tables in graphs. For example, users can remove statistics from tables in a capability analysis graph. 1.The ability to drag and edit Pie Chart slice labels is now available. 2. Two new graph file formats, GIF (a raster format) and enhanced metafile (a vector format), have been added. 3. The Chi Square Goodness of Fit – Single Categorical Variable feature provides a way of testing whether a categorical data set follows a multinomial distribution with certain proportions. 4. Chi Square Goodness of Fit – Poisson Distribution functionality is now available to test whether a data set follows a Poisson distribution.

7. MegaStat – Statistical Software for Excel Includes: Creates output sheets with formatted output AutoExpand feature allows for quick data selection Automatic detection of data labels Completely separate from Excel’s Data Analysis Tools (The Data Analysis add-in does not have to be installed) MegaStat corrects several computational problems with Excel and Data analysis Tools. Computations involving factorials can handle factorials in excess of 1,000,000 The Stepwise Selection procedure provides a powerful new alternative to traditional stepwise regression http://blue.butler.edu/~orris/MegaStat_download/Promo2.pdf Middle of the Road Packages

8. Chart Two: More Powerful Packages Greater Power Characteristics SPSS We will demonstrate this one SAS Popular professional package. Everything and the kitchen sink. Command-driven; type in the right phrase to invoke the appropriate package, & it provides output. Powerful data management capabilities. Difficult to learn. Doesn't run on Macs. Stata Similar to SAS. Runs on Macs & PCs. Slightly easier to learn than SAS. Less variety, still far beyond the concerns of high school statistics. som som

9. Chart Two (Continued): More Powerful Packages Greater PowerAdditional Characteristics SPSS SPSS.com Very expensive – lots of support http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/spss/ SAS hththttp://www.sas.com/ Business orientedtp://wtp://w Stata stata.com Statiscal Software for professionals

10. Stata/SE 9 network with Complete Documentation Set N QuantityCost 2$1295.00 For 3 – 5+350.00 each6 – 10+320.00 each11 – 15+270.00 each16 – 25+255.00 each26 – 50+195.00each51++175.00each Examples of Cost for Stats packages Minitab Pricing Number of copies Price per unit copy 1 $1195 2-10 $995 11-20 $895 21+ $795

11. How would we go about this? Paying for the stats package I need? Free packages and materials http://www.statsci.org/free.html http://gsociology.icaap.org/methods/sof t.htmlt.htmlt.html

12. Can purchase most of these packages as individual licenses Be careful using E-bay. For SPSS and other professional packages the full version is not needed for high school statistics Purchase the student version – sometimes called the grad pak $45-$99 It is limited to 50 by 50 spread sheet (variables limited to 50) Should not be a problem for High School basic stats Free, but... "demonstration" or "student versions" of commercial packages; can be freely downloaded, but are usually restricted or limited in some way. A few Cautions

13. http://www.statsoftinc.com/textbook/stathom e.html Electronic textbook Right hand menu: Basic stats Statistical advisor Elementary Concepts Glossary Important Website