2015-2016
Larry A. Ryle High School
AP Statistics Curriculum Map
Unit Title
Unit 1: Exploring Data
Unit 2: Modeling Distributions of
Data
Duration
3 weeks
3 weeks
Primary Standards
Exploratory analysis of data makes use of graphical
and numerical techniques
to study patterns and departures from patterns.
In examining distributions of
data, students should be able to detect important
characteristics, such as shape, location, variability and
unusual values. From careful observations of patterns
in data, students can generate conjectures about
relationships among
variables.
Essential Question(s)
What are the best measures
of center and spread based
on the distribution of the
data?
Statistical inference guides the selection of
appropriate models.
Models and data interact in statistical work: models
are used to draw conclusions from data.
How can you organize data
using different types of
graphical representations?
How can a distribution be
described using specific
characteristics?
How can those graphical
representations be
appropriately used when
analyzing data?
Unit 3: Describing Relationships
3 weeks
Exploratory analysis of data makes use of graphical
and numerical techniques
to study patterns and departures from patterns.
From careful observations of patterns in data, students
can generate conjectures about relationships among
variables. The notion of how one variable may be
associated with another permeates almost all of
statistics from simple comparisons of linear
regression.
What are the components of
linear regression?
How can we make
conjectures about
relationships among two
variables using linear
regression?
2015-2016
Unit 4: Designing Studies
Unit 5: Probability
Larry A. Ryle High School
3 weeks
3 weeks
Data must be collected according to a welldeveloped plan if valid information
is to be obtained.
If data are to be collected to provide an answer to a
question of interest, a careful plan must be developed.
Collecting data in a reasonable way, through either
sampling or experimentation, is an essential
step in the data analysis process.
What are methods of
collecting data and how can
we use these designed
studies to analyze data?
Exploratory analysis of data makes use of graphical
and numerical techniques
to study patterns and departures from patterns.
The difference between association and causation
must accompany this conceptual development
throughout.
What is the difference
between association and
causation?
Probability is the tool used for anticipating what the
distribution of data should look like under a given
model.
Interpreting probability, including long-run relative
frequency interpretation, “Law of Large Numbers”
concept, the addition rule, multiplication rule,
conditional probability and
Independence (notion of independence versus
dependence).
What is implied with the
theory of “Law of Large
Numbers”?
How does a conditional
event affect the probability
of an outcome?
What is the difference
between independent and
dependent probability?
2015-2016
Unit 6: Random Variables
Unit 7: Sampling Distributions
Unit 8: Estimation
Larry A. Ryle High School
2 weeks
3 weeks
3 weeks
Probability is the tool used for anticipating what the
distribution of data should look like under a given
model.
Discrete random variables and their probability
distributions, including binomial and geometric
What are the characteristics
of a binomial distribution
and how can the probability
distribution be calculated?
Probability is the tool used for anticipating what the
distribution of data should look like under a given
model.
The normal distribution
Properties of the normal distribution
Using tables of the normal distribution
The normal distribution as a model for measurements
Sampling distributions
Sampling distribution of a sample proportion
Sampling distribution of a sample mean
Central Limit Theorem
t-distribution
What is a sampling
distribution?
Statistical inference guides the selection of
appropriate models.
Models and data interact in statistical work: models
are used to draw conclusions from data,
while the data are allowed to criticize and even falsify
the model through inferential and diagnostic methods.
Inference from data can be thought of as
the process of selecting a reasonable model, including
a statement in probability language, of how confident
one can be about the selection.
How do we estimate a
population proportion?
What are the characteristics
of a geometric distribution
and how can the probability
distribution be calculated?
Based on knowledge about a
sampling distribution, how
can we calculate the
probability of sampling
distributions for proportions
and means?
How do we estimate a
population mean?
2015-2016
Unit 9: Hypothesis Testing
Unit 10: Inferences about
Differences
Larry A. Ryle High School
3 weeks
2 weeks
Statistical inference guides the selection of
appropriate models.
Logic of significance testing, null and alternative
hypotheses; p-values;
one- and two-sided tests; concepts of Type I and Type
II errors; concept of power.
Large sample test for a proportion.
Test for a mean.
How can hypothesis testing
help us make informed
statistical decisions?
Probability is the tool used for anticipating what the
distribution of data should look like under a given
model.
Sampling distribution of a difference between two
independent sample proportions
Sampling distribution of a difference between two
independent sample means
Simulation of sampling distributions
What inferences can be made
about two proportion
distributions?
How do confidence interval
and hypothesis test
conclusions relate to one
another?
What inferences can be made
about two mean
distributions?
Unit 11: Inferences for Categorical
Data (Chi-Square)
1 week
Statistical inference guides the selection of
appropriate models.
Chi-square test for goodness of fit, homogeneity of
proportions, and independence (one- and two-way
tables)
How can inferences be made
about categorical data?
Unit 12: More about Regression
1 week
Statistical inference guides the selection of
appropriate models.
Test for the slope of a least-squares regression line.
What inference can be made
about the slope of a linear
regression line?
AP Preparation
3 weeks
Review of all standards included in the College Board’s
AP Statistics course description.