Assignment: Practice with Descriptive Statistics

Reading about descriptive statistics is one thing. Actually using software to compute them requires different skill sets. This assignment is designed to give you the opportunity to practice using Microsoft Excel to compute a variety of descriptive statistics for the data set provided below. Assume that you want to describe your office coworkers in terms of gender, height, and weight. The following is the data you collected:

For each variable, using Microsoft Excel, compute the mean, the median, and the mode (if appropriate).

For each variable, using Microsoft Excel, compute the range and standard deviation (if appropriate).

Using Microsoft Excel, create a visual display for each variable (bar graph or histogram) as appropriate.

In the body of your main post, in paragraph form and in your own words, describe your coworkers on the basis of the data you collected. Additionally, share your reflections of your experience conducting these descriptive analyses. If you are having difficulty using Microsoft Excel, this is a chance to start a discussion with your instructor and classmates to seek help, guidance, and tips.

o Under what conditions would you use a median rather than the mean as a measure of central tendency?

o Why is the range the most convenient measure of dispersion and the most imprecise measure of variability?

o Why is it important to consider the type of data when computing descriptive statistics?

o Why do we use a standard deviation instead of variance?

o Is it helpful to understand the equations, or do you just need to know how to plug the formula into Microsoft Excel?