Thoughts on Teaching Week 4 tutorial

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Thoughts on Sect. 4.1

With \(22\) observations, the median is halfway between the \(11\)th and \(12\)th ordered observations (observation number \((22 + 1)/2 = 11.5\)): both be in the second bar, so the median is somewhere between \(8\) and \(10\) mm (we cannot be sure based on the histogram, as information is lost). If they understand the histogram, they should also see that the smallest breadth is about \(6\) mm, so a median of \(4\) mm makes no sense.

If you have the time: Ask how to explain why they are wrong, and ask approximately what the median would be.

You may like to suggest that students search on YouTube for some tutorials on using their calculator's Statistics Mode.

The Course Outline indicates that a calculator is needed. Help students as much as you can, but you cannot be expected to know how to work every type of calculator that is out there. You can perhaps direct students to work with other students having similar calculators.

If students use the wrong standard deviation button, they will get \(\sigma = 4.79\) MPa in error. This is one important outcome of this question: that students know what button to press on their calculator to get the sample standard deviation.

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