Problem
Descriptive statistics are used to summarize data. Learn about the different kinds of descriptive statistics, the ways in which they differ form inferential statistics, how they are calculated and more.
• Imagine that you are interested in measuring how many people in a population are obese or overweight. A common way that obesity is tracked in the population is with body mass index (BMI). Your boss provides you with a data set of 12 study participants' BMIs and asks you to calculate the basic descriptive statistics. The BMI are 28, 40, 23, 34, 35, 18, 24, 35, 21, 22, 38 and 19. Your boss asks you for a summary of your findings.
• Calculate the mode, mean, standard deviation, variance, range, and outliers; and report whether these data are normally distributed. Review the video for information about descriptive statistics.
Task
A. Discuss how these BMI findings may impact your community today or might in the future and observe any trends or issues with these data.
B. Discuss how your culture, faith, and other interpersonal factors impact your thinking about this issue.
C. Review your thinking about obesity and consider how these data and articles changed your thoughts about obesity in America.