Activity 4.1.2 Average Height
link to spreadsheet
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14jW1tmfgxkX9yGB7GFjfy8ZBjPTXL-j3jUeuG6ZBU/edit?usp=sharing
Introduction
In this activity you will describe a set of numbers and then make accurate inferences
about your group of data based on incomplete information.
Equipment
Google Sheet or Microsoft Excel software
Procedure
1. Predict the average height of all students in your POE class.
5 feet
2. This is the heights on individual students in the class.
5’4”, 5’5”, 5’6”, 5’7”, 5’3”, 6’, 5’9”, 5’8”, 5’6”, 5’11”, 5’4”, 5’2”, 5’6”, 5’9”
3. Convert the heights into decimals, i.e. 5.5 ft. instead of 5’6”.
4. Open an Excel® program or Google Sheet and create the spreadsheet shown
below.
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Principles Of Engineering Activity 4.1.2 Candy Statistics – Page 1
5. Calculate the mean value for category within the experiment.
Pick an empty cell nearby and type Average, then in the cell next to it type
=average. Choose Average from the drop down, hit Enter, and highlight
the cells that you want to work with. Hit Enter and the average should
appear in this box.
6. Calculate the Median and Mode, and Standard Deviation, follow the same
instruction as in the Mean. Put these directly below the Mean cell.
7. Perform a manual Standard Deviation calculation below and compare it with the
computer generated one. Are they the same? If not, correct it.
8. Calculate the package total using the SUM function.
9. Calculate a ± 3ϭ histogram for the class average height.
a. Create a frequency distribution table as illustrated below.
Yellow Candy
ϭ = 1.155
3Ϭ
Mean + (3 ϭ )
2Ϭ
1Ϭ
Mea
n
-1 Ϭ
-2 Ϭ
-3 Ϭ
Mean + (2 ϭ )
Mean + (1 ϭ )
Bin
Frequency (how often the value
occurs within the data array)
How many in the class with height
in this group.
Mean - (1 ϭ )
Mean - (2 ϭ )
Mean - (3 ϭ )
Conclusion
1. Do your histograms fit a classic bell curve? Why or why not?
my histogram fits the bell curves because the median height was the average height
2. East Mecklenburg HS has about 2000 students. What do you think the
histograms would look like? Why?
the histogram will be consistent because the students vary from 4.9 feet to 6.2 feet
© 2012 Project Lead The Way, Inc.
Principles Of Engineering Activity 4.1.2 Candy Statistics – Page 2
3. What are the percentage breakdown for 1, 2, and 3 standard deviations? Explain
what standard deviation means.
the percentage breakdown for 1, 2, and 3 are 68, 95, and 99.7. standard deviation is
how spread out the numbers are.
© 2012 Project Lead The Way, Inc.
Principles Of Engineering Activity 4.1.2 Candy Statistics – Page 3