ES 25 Quantitative Thinking
Lab 2: Visualizing data & Graphing
Due: Tuesday, April 17,th before 12 noon (E-mail to your facilitator)
General notes on graphs and charts:
 Graphs and charts are a way to communicate quantitative information visually.
 Graphs and charts should have a title, labeled axes, and include units and a legend (when
applicable).
 Graphs and Charts can easily mislead (or “trick” a reader)
o Beware of some of the following common ways of “misinforming:”
 When comparing two data sets, be sure that the “scale” is the same
 Both axes should span the same range of numbers
 The size of the graph should be the same
 Colors can be used to influence opinion
1. Open a new workbook, and name it “YourLastNameLab2.xls”
2. Make a chart or graph of the “Percent daily water use by room” as follows:
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Cut and paste data table into Excel
Make Excel calculate the total “percent of indoor water use”
Choose the most appropriate type of chart for the data
o You can investigate different formats by clicking on them.
Reorganize the data so that the wedges of the pie go from “biggest to smallest.”
o This is done by highlighting the data, table then go to “Data” then to “Sort”
Try to format (color) your chart to emphasize the fixture that consumes the most water.
Change the format to a bar chart, for fun, then switch back.
Try to make the chart look like this one (click on this hyperlink):
http://www.h2ouse.org/tour/details/element_action_contents.cfm?elementID=5812B5A5-E0BE-4D14A202C8DAE8CE491F&actionID=11252FC5-E889-45A5-A088549C8CF50361&roomID=8183044A-321948E2-A965ACB77A568AC4
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Be sure to include a title and legend.
After the chart is made, right click on different parts of the chart and investigate
different options (such as location, chart type, chart options, etc.)
According to Mayer, et al, 1999, (see website http://www.sbwater.org/yourhome.htm),
the percent of water use in the “average” bathroom can be broken down as follows:
Fixture
Bath
Clothes washer
Dishwasher
Faucet
Leak
Other Domestic
Shower
Toilet
Percent of Indoor Water Use
1.7
21.7
1.4
16.7
13.7
2.2
15.8
26.7
2. Open the file “Lab 2 data.xls” from the course website:
 Import the worksheets into your workbook, as follows:
 Click on the worksheet that you want to import into your
Lab2 workbook
 Edit  Move or Copy Sheet To book:“yournameLab2.xls”
Before sheet: “move to end”  check “Make a Copy)
 Repeat for all four worksheets
 If you run out of “sheets” go to “insert” then “worksheet”
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Use the data to reproduce the following graphs in your workbook an pages 3-6:
 Runoff vs. Rainfall
 Population
 C02
 If you are interested in learning more about the data, check
out: http://www.seattlecentral.org/qelp/MasterList.html
o Be sure to adjust the SCALE of x and y axes, titles, legend, colors,
etc. to match with the graphs in your course workbook.
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On the Runoff vs. Rainfall graph, find the equation of the “regression”
trendline, a follows:
o Select all data points on graph (all should be highlighted)
o ChartAdd Trendline “Type = Linear”, “Options = check
Display Equation on chart and display R2 value on chart.” Format
trendline so that it only shows 2 decimal places.
3. Tree Growth:
 Recreate the data table and graph on page 10 of your workbook in Excel
2
 Add a linear trendlineto your graph, and include the equation and R value
4. Global Warming Data: refer to the questions on page 17 of your workbook,
and on HW2. Investigate Pollock’s claim ““Everyone agrees there has
been some warming over the past century, but most of it happened before
1940.” Vs the New Republics’ claim that “The last three decades have seen
the sharpest rise (in temperature),” by making graphs and estimating the
linear equations, as follows:
 Make Excel compute the average temperature anomaly for each year
(remember to “click and drag” the formula down)
 Graph the average temperature anomaly vs. year for all years available
(use a line graph , not a scatterplot, when the x-axis is time). Compare
your plot to the top graph on page 18 of your workbook.- it should look
the same (ignore the lower graph on pg 18).
 Read the article carefully. Do you believe Pollock’s claim?
o Use Excel to graph the temperature anomaly over the time
periods 1907-1944 and 1944-2005. Include the equation for
the linear trendline in these two graphs.
o Do you think these are the best (most accurate) spans of years to
pick? Give this some serious thought by looking at the first
graph that you constructed (also on top of page 18 workbook).
o If not, pick more reasonable years to compare, and make
graphs (with equations) corresponding to these years.
o Copy and paste your graphs into your HW2 assignment. Click
on the whole graph, “Edit” – “Copy”- go into Word- “Paste”
Don’t forget to ATTACH your Excel Spreadsheet (name it: your last
nameLAB2.xls) when you turn it in to your facilitator by e-mail.
Be sure to do the Excel tutorial on graphing:
http://office.microsoft.com/training/training.aspx?AssetID=RC011055061033&pid=CR061831141033
if you need more practice (if the “practice” part doesn’t work on your computer
because of the “Active X plug in”, manually enter the data that they are using in
the tutorial (shown below) and then follow along in Excel. You can skip the
autowizard part of the tutorial, and go directly to the “tell the wizard what you
want to do.”
Print the Quick reference card, for your reference.