Share your Experience with Gapminder Activity

Greeting everyone,

Please share your experience working on this activity.
Specifically, comment on the use of the new tools Gapminder, Wiki, Jing, etc.
Here are a few suggested questions:

1. Gapminder and Activity

- What did you like about this activity? What did you not like?
- What are your suggestions to make it better?
- Do you promote the use of Gapminder as a tool for viewing and exploring data
in a statistic class?
- Comment on different ways and different settings we can use Gapminder
to stimulate and expand learning.

2. Wikispace

- Do you like the idea of an editable public website, to read and share your work?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of a wiki?
- Should it be for everyone or members only?

3. Jing

- How do you like Jing?(Jing can also capture a video via a webcam with a fee.)
- Could you suggest other ways to use Jing?
ex: For me, I could use Jing to capture my piano practice.
If I like the music enough I can save the link and share it with my sister.

Your comments are greatly appreciated.

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Thank you

I would like to thank everyone for participating in the Gapminder Extra Credit Activity. I hope we all had a good time creating our stories despite some initial frustration with the technologies, Wiki, Gapminder, Jing, etc. For those who did not join the activity this time, you can still create your stories and share them on the wiki.

It has been a great learning experience for me promoting the use of Gapminder as a tool for visualizing data and managing the wikispace. Your questions and comments have enriched my understanding of these tools. I look forward to reading your stories more in depth starting tomorrow night.

A big thank-you to those who were willing to go the extra mile to create and share your videos. Your stories will resonate with the viewers as they are able to see the motion pictures.

I invite all of you to read these stories, share your comments and suggestions with the authors. Most of all, have an enjoyable time.

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Posting Videos on Class Wikispace

You first need to create a video and save it as a file or obtain a URL. You can use any software to create your video. I used Jing for this demonstration. Let's watch the video from http://statistics401dxw-isu-spring2011.wikispaces.com/.

Extension for Gapminder Story Assignment

The new due date is April 2nd, 2011.

How to Capture Images or Create Video for your Gapminder Story?

Hello everyone,

I have been using the PrintScreen function on the keyboard to take a picture of my Gapminder graph.

However, today, a friend told me about a new software called Jing that can take a picture or make a short video of what you see on your computer screen. It can also let you share your video and picture instantly on the web.

This will be a nice way to capture an image and/or create a video for your Gapminder story. I encourage you to check it out. It is very simple and easy to use. You can download the software, watch the tutorial, and try it with your own story.

First you can learn to capture a still image using the Capture Image option, save, copy and paste it into your document.

Then try the Capture Video option to create a video to show the animation of your story. You can then obtain a link to the video and share it on the our wikispace or via email, web, etc. Here is the link:

http://www.techsmith.com/jing/

I will demonstrate how to use Jing in Lab on Thursday. Check it out before Lab if possible.
If you know any other methods of screen capture, please share.

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SAS code for Fisher z-transformation

If you are interested in using SAS for question c in Lab 7, you can use the code below:

TITLE Fisher z-transformation correlation test;
PROC CORR data=crime Fisher(rho0=.5 alpha=.01);
VAR violent poverty;
RUN;

I recommend doing this question by hand to find the test statistic z. SAS does not provide this value z. However, you can use the p-value in the output to decide whether or not to reject H0.

Request for Membership to Wiki

Hello everyone,
Please request for membership to the Wiki

http://statistics401dxw-isu-spring2011.wikispaces.com/
so you can post your Extra Credit Assignment.
Let me know if you would like to do an oral presentation.


To request for membership, just click on "Join this Wiki" on the wiki page and select "Request Membership".

Link to Wikispace for Gapminder Extra Credit Assignment

http://statistics401dxw-isu-spring2011.wikispaces.com/

Please post your Gapminder Stories on this site.

I have just sent out an email invitation asking you to join this wikispace. You will need to send me a request for membership to this wikispace before you can post or edit the site.

Feel free to share your questions and comments here.

Link to my slides on Gapminder

Here is the link to the slides I presented in lab last night (March 10, 2011).

http://prezi.com/5oto45gmhsru/c-visualizing-data-analysis-with-gapminder/

"YOU TELL THE STORY"

Extra Credit Assignment: YOU TELL THE STORY

Total Points: 30

Due date: March 31, 2011

1. Using GAPMINDER DESKTOP, create a graph or chart of your choice.
   
2. Interpret your graph and write a one-page paper to answer the question “What story is this graph telling? In other words, tell the story of your graph.
   
3. You can choose to share your story by doing a 3 minute oral presentation or upload your story and the graph in a wikispace (more info on this later).

====================================================================
I hope you enjoy exploring the Gapminder software. Please post your comments or questions about it here. Feel free to share your positive experience as well as any difficulties with Gapminder. I will post my slides on Gapminder soon.

Please keep checking the blog for news and updates. I look forward to reading your stories.

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The Use of Simple Linear Regression

http://www.gapminder.org/videos/200-years-that-changed-the-world/


This is a "must-watch" video as it is closely related to what we discussed this week. I'm developing it into another extra-credit activity and will elaborate that in Lab next Thursday 3-10-2011.

Please post your comments here. Here are some suggestions:

• Discuss the relationship between Life Expectancy and Income per person.
• Discuss the use of graphics as tools to visualize Data. Specifically, look at the graph,
  

Explain the axes:
What is the vertical axis?
What is the horizontal axis?
Then explain the bubbles:
What does each bubble represent?
What does the size of the bubbles represent?
What does colour represent?

• How do you think the Life Expectancy variable was measured for each country?
• What is another term used to describe the Income per person in a country?
  
• How was the situation in 1800?
  
• Ect.

Above of all, enjoy the video and share your thoughts.

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"The Joy of Statistics" Video

http://www.gapminder.org/videos/the-joy-of-stats/

I hope you enjoy watching this informative video. More than ever, I'm proud to be a statistician and an educator who spreads the word of this wonderful science called Statistics. This movie helps to dispel the myth and the "accusation" some people have on statistics: "There are three kinds of lies, Lies, damned lies, and statistics".
What do you think?

Please share your thoughts and comments after watching the video.

Publish Post

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Solution to Example 6 in Lab 5 Notes

This example is similar to question 3 in the Lab Assignment 5. The solution is posted in WebCt. I thought I could upload a document here but it only works for pictures or videos. Here is the SAS program: DATA Example6;
input Farm VarietyA VarietyB;
diff=VarietyA-VarietyB;
datalines;
1 48.2 41.5
2 44.6 40.1
3 49.7 44.0
4 40.5 41.2
5 54.6 49.8
6 47.1 41.7
7 51.4 46.8
;

title Paired t-test comparison;
proc print data=Example6;
run;

*you can perform a t-test using Proc ttest;
proc ttest data=Example6;
var diff;
run;

Creating a SAS file after importing data into SAS

There are a few ways to do this. For me I usually just read the data in and work from there, (refer to Question 1 of Assignment 1 for how to read in the GunDeaths file)

If you import the data, then after your data is imported successfully, SAS will create a temporary SAS file in the WORK folder. From there, you can perform one of the two actions below to obtain that temporary SAS file:
1. Upload the data file to the SAS Server or
2. Down load the data file to your PC (recommended)

To Download Data file to your PC, follow the two steps in the wizard. To do this, in the OuputData, select Data, then select Download Data Files to PC and follow the steps:

Step 1: "Select the SAS data file to copy to your PC"

• Click on ADD
  

it will take you to a folder called WORK.
In this WORK folder you should see the name of the file that you imported,
say MyFile. SAS creates a genuine SAS file with the same name with the ending .sas7bdat.
Your new file will be MyFile.sas7bdat

• Select the SAS file and click OPEN
• Click NEXT to go to the second step

Step 2: "Select the folder for the SAS data set on your PC

• Click on Browse to save the file in your desired folder, say MyFolder
  
• Select Finish

You now have a SAS file MyFile.sas7bdat in MyFolder. You can open or read this file into SAS.

Grades for Lab 02 assignment

Hello everyone,

We are aware that not everyone is able to see their grades for Lab 2 on WebCt. Please don't panic. Amy assured us that she would post all the scores by next weekend. She will also post a grading rubric for each lab from now on. According to her, she is currently experiencing a huge volume of papers to grade. We wish she had communicated with us more frequently and much earlier.

If you have not picked up your graded papers, you can do so during my office hours or in class on Tuesday. We may ask Amy to hold some office hours so that she can answer your questions in person if needed.

Revision of notation

Please notice the change in slide 3 of Lab 3 Notes on

1. Sample SD and
   
2. Standard Error of the Mean

Let me know if you have any questions.

Notes for Lab 4 posted

Hello everyone,

The two sets of notes for Lab 4 have been posted. The Lab notes this week are kind of long. Please read ahead if possible and bring a copy of the new assignment (Lab 4) to follow along in lab or when you view the recording.

Does anyone miss SAS? I am preparing some activities for SAS in case we have extra time. Otherwise, I will post the programs on WebCt. You can play with them when you have some time to kill o:).

Best regards,

Extra Credit

Hello everyone,

The 10-point extra credits for commenting on SDM have been posted. If you only signed with your first name, you may not see your score there. I tried to figure out your last name but in the case more than two people with the same first name in class, your score was not recorded. Email me your full name so I can fix that.

Confidence Interval Calculator

http://www.dimensionresearch.com/resources/calculators/conf_means.html

You can use this website to check some (not all) of your answers in Lab 3. Check it out. Explore the site and share your findings and opinions.

Publish Post

Lab grading and related issues

Dear students,

As a student posted her comment on the grading issue on this blog, I decided to use this forum to write about this matter.

Over the last four weeks, Dr. Shelley and I have received quite a few questions regarding grades, posting of grades and related issues. We usually responded by asking you to send your inquiries to Amy directly. However, we are also aware that many of you have continued to experience a "silent treatment" from Amy. Please do not feel that you are alone. We too experience the same treatment. Quite a few of my email messages to her went unanswered.

My suggestion for you at this point is to keep trying. Include Dr. Shelley and me in the email if you like. If your questions are not resolved or an issue still persists, please keep us informed. We will try to work with Amy to bring more communication and "visibility" either on-line or off-line.


Sincerely,

Lab Notes and Clarification on question 1b of Lab 3

Hello everyone,

Annotated Notes for Lab 2 and Lab 3 were posted. However, I need to clarify a point in question 1b of Lab 3. My explanation for 1b in Lab tonight was not accurate. I misread the question.

Question 1b: You decide that this interval is too wide, and would like to have one that is only half as wide. How large a sample size would you need? Show how you got this result.

Suggestion: You will need to cut the interval obtained from (a) in half first before finding the new half-width. So the new sample size should be larger than the original sample. The new n should not be 100 as the original n.

YouTube Video on Confidence Interval

Excellent explanation on Confidence Interval

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn6C21GC0vA&NR=1

YouTube video on Margin of Error and Confidence Interval

Hi Everyone,

This video is very useful for lab 3. Watch this before lab tonight if possible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw7-HZ9g8Gs

Happy Lunar New Year

On the lunar calendar, today is New Year Eve. Many Asian countries celebrate Lunar New Year as their most important holiday of the year. Chinese people refer to this holiday as Spring Festival. It is more commonly known by the Vietnamese people as Tet Nguyen Dan or Tet for short. Regardless of the different names, the first day of the festival starts tomorrow, Feb 3rd, 2011. In Vietnam (where I came from) we celebrate this day with re-union of families, friends and relatives.

Please join me in celebrating the Lunar New Year. Warm wishes to all for a happy Year of the Rabbit.

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Interesting Websites on this holiday

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%E1%BA%BFt

http://www.arirang.co.kr/News/News_View.asp?nseq=112170&code=Ne2&category=2

Short movies on Introduction to SAS

Check this out. You may want to bookmark it for handy reference.

http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/seminars/#SAS

Link to YouTube Movie "STANDARD DEVIATION MAN"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLTSenQotqw

DropBox

As promised, I set out to "investigate" the use of Dropbox. All I can say at this point is it is an amazing piece of software. I believe I will like it more and more as I get to experience with it.

In a nut shell, Dropbox is a free on-line storage system that allows you to store and assess your files across the internet. When you create your own Dropbox, you have created an on-line file cabinet to keep your files. You can save and assess your documents privately or share them instantly with others.

This will be very helpful for those who use SAS from a remote computer for this class.
Give it a try. Create a Dropbox account!!!

For more information, visit

http://joviawebstudio.com/blog/the_benefits_of_dropbox/

http://www.dropbox.com/

Yesterday's Lab Notes

I was not able to post the handwritten notes created in lab yesterday because the file was saved as a .notebook file, not .pdf or any other endings. I will try to look for a software to convert it or will have to go to the lab to use the smart notebook software to open it and resave it as a pdf.

Please go over the recording to review those notes.

Reflection

It's almost 2 am. I felt a big relief after finishing my group assignment which will be due tomorrow. Now I have a little time to reflect on the lab tonight before going to bed.

I thought the lab went pretty well even though I was at first a bit concerned about its overlapping with the lecture on Tuesday. I guess repetition is helpful and needed to learn this new language called "Statistics" for many students. I wanted to show the YouTube movie "Standard Deviation Man", but the tech set up does not support the sound yet.
Hopefully, everyone has a change to get started on the assignment early this weekend so they have time to ponder and gain a deeper understanding of the material.

Someone asked after lab if we had a Stat Help Room in our department. I thought it was such a good idea as the Help Room could be a good place for students to stop by or call in anytime during the day to get help. The time flexibility (not rigid as set office hours) would benefit many students. How possible is it during this tight-budget time? Most stat TA are currently overworked while having a heavy class load and research activity.

Will post the annotated lab notes soon. Morning is approaching.

PRINTING SAS OUTPUT FROM A REMOTE SERVER

Printing is an issue when using a remote desktop. You will have to print to those printers installed in that remote computer. Therefore it is not possible for you to print SAS output to your printer or save it to you flash drive when you are using a remote machine.

For now you can save your work in a Word document. You will first need to set up your output in RTF format and then Export the output to an RTF file.

To set up output in RTF format, follow these steps:

Click on Tools-->Options-->Result General. Check the pdf and RTF boxes.

To export your output to an RTF file (or Word file), view your output in Results- RTF and

Click on File-->Export-->Export RTF-Program

Now you can save your file on the remote desktop or some folder of your choice on that desktop and email the document to yourself so you can print or open it on your computer.

I know it is cumbersome to have to email SAS output to yourself. Another option is to use a DropBox. I've never used it myself so cannot offer any help on that. I will check into it soon though.

Best,

SAS issues

Many of you experienced some difficulty with SAS, not reading the data file that was saved on a remote desktop. You can try to type the data right in the program instead. Be sure to comment out the INFILE line.

Also, a student pointed out to me during my office hour today that the RTF output did not show the histogram for question 1. I am still not sure why that happened. My apology for not noticing that before. I will try to figure it out. For now, you can use the histogram from pdf output. You may have to take a snap shot of the histogram in order to copy it to a Word document. To do that, go to
Tools->Select & Zoom->Snap Shot.

Don't stress out too much about the SAS part. Just try to get familiar with SAS for now.

Standard Deviation Man

I have received quite a few questions on how to find the Standard Deviation (SD). Here is the link to a fun "refresher course" on SD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLTSenQotqw&feature=player_embedded#!

A few notes about the class

Lab notes for this week have been posted. I may need to make changes after Tuesday's lecture. I fully understand that this is not an easy class for those who have not had statistics before or have been away from statistics or math for a while (a few years). However, everyone will experience a steep learning curve throughout the course.

To do well in this class, you will need to keep up with the lectures and all lab activities. It is also very important to come to Dr. Shelley's or my office hours frequently. Watch the video lectures or labs as soon as possible during the week. You will find that you may need to watch them again and again. Email us your questions after you have tried hard to find the answer yourself.

In this class, we use SAS as our main software for data analysis. However, you can use any software of your choice. There are plenty of resources for SAS for beginners on line or you can just follow the instructions in class. We focus mostly on teaching you basic SAS syntax so you will be able to write simple programs in SAS for your assignments. You may also be able to apply them to your current or future research.

Best of luck on your learning journey in this class. My hope is to challenge and inspire you to learn more statistics.

Regards,

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Hello

I have decided to create this blog as an informal forum for our class. You are invited to post your comments and/or suggestions that you would like to share with everyone.