Preparing for NGSS: Analyzing and Interpreting Data Add your information here:
Interpreting your data
Transcript of Interpreting your data
DylanTaillie &CarolineDonovanCMCIntroductiontoDataInterpretationWorkshop
January30,2018
Toolsforeffectivesciencecommunication
Interpretingyourdata
• Evaluatingandanalyzingyourdatainordertocommunicateitinameaningfulwaywithyourselectedaudience
Interpretation
• Nominal– Non-numerical– Qualitative
Kindsofdata
• Ordinal– Numerical– Quantitative
Kindsofdata
• Interval– BasicWQdata– Distancebetweennumbers
• Ratio– Similartointerval– Absolutezero
Kindsofdata
• Accuracyishowcloseameasurementistoarealvalue• Precisioniswhenrepeatedmeasurementscloselymatch
eachother
PrecisionvsAccuracy
• Accuracyishowcloseameasurementistoarealvalue• Precisioniswhenrepeatedmeasurementscloselymatch
eachother
PrecisionvsAccuracy
• Cleaningisrequiredbeforeyouinterpretyourdata• Whatdoescleaningmydatamean?– Formattingyourspreadsheetsoit’sconsistent– Flaggingunusualorduplicatedata
Activity- Cleaningyourdatainexcel
• Arethereheaderswithunitsassociatedwiththedatavalues?
• Dotherowsandcolumnshavetherightwidthsandheightstoviewallthedataoristhatevenneeded?
• Arethereanymissingdatathatareinanotherspreadsheetoronanothertabthatneedtobeincorporatedhere?
Excelactivity– step1
• Howarethedataorganized?Bydateorsamplingstation?Whichwayisthebestwaytolookatandinterpretthedata?
• Arethereanyduplicateentries?Why?Doyoudeletethemaltogetherorsavethem“justincase”?Howdoyouorganizeandstructureyourfilestodothis?
• Arethereanyunusualdata?Youcansortthedatafromhightolowanddetermineifanyvaluesareoutsidetheexpectedrange.Thiscouldbeduetotypingerrors,instrumenterror,ortheycouldbegenuineoutliers
Excelactivity– step2
• ArethereanycellsthatneedtobechangedfromnumberstotextorviceversasothatExcelcanreadthemcorrectly?
• Howareyourlatitudeandlongitudewritten?IsitinaformatthatworksforyouorforsomeonewhowillbedoingGISmapping?
Excelactivity– step3
• Whataredescriptivestatistics?– Toolstoprovidebasicsummarizedinformationaboutyourdata
– Mean,medianandmode
Usingstatisticstodescribeyourdata
• Range– Thetotalspreadofallvaluesinadataset
Usingstatisticstodescribeyourdata(cont.)
• Outliers– Datavaluesthatfalloutsidethegeneraldistributionofthedata
• Standarddeviation– Distancefrommean– Variability
• Standarderror– TypeofSD– Dependsonsamplesize
Usingstatisticstodescribeyourdata(cont.)
• Bellcurves– Normaldistribution– 95%ofdatawithin2SD
Usingstatisticstodescribeyourdata(cont.)
Usingstatisticstodescribeyourdata(cont.)
• Non-normaldistribution
• Correlation– Twovariablesrelated– Temperature&DO
Usingstatisticstodescribeyourdata(cont.)
• Dataintables– whyuseatable?• Partsofatable
Displayingdata
rowcolumn cell
Formattingatableforyouraudience
• Graphingdataistheeasiestwaytovisualizeyourdata
• Helpyoutoo:– Seerelationshipsbetweendifferentmeasurementsinthedata
– Identifyoutliers– Visualizeandidentifytrends
Dataingraphs
• Bargraph• Linegraph• Piegraph• Comparisonbargraph
Typesofgraphs
Choosingagraphandformatting– bargraph
Choosingagraphandformatting– linegraph
Choosingagraphandformatting– piegraph
• Helpreadersvisuallyconnectinformation• Connectnumbersfromgraphstogeneralpatternsandtrendsorshowinformationonageographicscale
Datainfigures
• Partsofafigure– Maps– Graphs– Photos– Text– Caption– Title
Datainfigures
Figureexample
Figureexample
• Startsmall,letthedataleadyou– Whatkindofdataareyoucollecting?– Whatisthebestwaytoorganizeyourdata?– Whatisthebestgraphforyourdata?– Willafigurehelpexplainyourdata?
• ThanksforjoiningusandletCarolineandIknowifyouhaveanyquestions!
Summary
Nowgobackandchoosethebestdisplaytypeforyourparameter!