Maths Folio Stats Probs

FUN WITH
STATISTICS
CML 2 FOLIO
TASK
ANGAS SMITH
SACE A MAT G JO
KELLAWAY
LSG15 KAY GILLET
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this mathematical investigation is to explore through the context of

Australian education statistics, the uses and importance of statistical data and how it can
be used to create a strong ground for arguments by showing clear evidence for or against
an idea so that appropriate action can take place. This particular example focuses on
Tryhard High where people believe that the students math proficiency has decreased over
recent years.
The staff and students at Tryhard High often debate the success of their students in a number of areas.
After a long day, one teacher loudly states Students just didnt learn anything in maths last year! They
just havent made any progress.
At Tryhard High, every year students sit an external maths competition. The scores for each student in
this competition for the current year 11 students for both this year and last year are given in the
provided file. Some students decide to analyse these data to (hopefully!) prove the teacher wrong.
The following section hopes to find evidence against these claims about the maths
program at Tryhard High. A variety of skills will be used in both excel and to compare the
data and come to a final conclusion.
The table below shows the results of the year 11 external maths competition over two
years for comparison.
Last
year
5
13.2
This
year
6
18.6
Media
n
Mode
13
19
11, 14
15
Max
30
32
Min
Mean
The mean will give us the most reliable evidence for this set of data about whether the
year 11 class as a whole has made a significant change or not but it is also useful to look
at the mode seeing as it represents the most common score received.
The mean for this year shows that the year 11 students have been making good progress
in the external maths competition and there is a clear increase in average test score from
the previous year. The mode for this year has also increased which looks positive except
Page 1
INTRODUCTION
for the fact that it now falls on the lower half of the data. In the previous year the mode
fell on either side of the median.
Last Year's External Math Comp Results

50
40
30
20
10
0
10
15
20
25
30
35
Frequency
This Year's External Maths Comp Results

30
25
20
15
10
5
0
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Frequency
Figure 2
Figure 3
The Histograms shown above (Figure 2, Figure 3) display the results of each tests. Firstly,
you can quite quickly see that the spread of this years test is smaller and no student
received a score lower than 5. This year more people received higher scores with two
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INTRODUCTION
students managing to reach the 30<=35 band. The scores most frequently received this
year were also higher, in the 16<=20 band as opposed to the 11<=15 band that was
most frequently reached last year. This data points to the fact that more students are
capable of receiving higher scores meaning that the Tryhard High students are making
progress.
Figure 4 (red is this year, blue is last year)
The box and whisker plot above (Figure 4) paints a similar picture to the histograms and
so we can draw similar conclusions.
Standard
Deviation
Range
Last
year
4.8
5.6
This
Year
30
26
Figure 5
The standard deviation of the test data (figure 5) doesnt really tell us much about the
progress of the students. Of course a smaller standard deviation would be optimal but
because there is no blatant change between the two it would not be just to come to
conclusions.
The science and maths staff at Tryhard High hardly ever talk to each other. In the staffroom there is an
argument about the success of the different departments. Our students do just fine in maths, but not in
science, claims a maths teacher. I dont think so! Our science program teaches them heaps more!
retorts a science teacher. Do you have any evidence of that? asks an English teacher.
The students also sit external science competitions. The total scores for the year 11 students in the
science competition are given in the provided file. Also supplied are the state average scores for the
science and maths competitions.
Page 3
INTRODUCTION
Maths
Mean
Median
Mode
18.6
19
15
Scienc
e
Mean
23.6
Median
Modes
24
21, 22,
26, 27,
28
students with drastically low test

fair to end here.
Page 4
The table to the left, like in part A compares the mean

median and mode of derived from the data of the
external maths and science competitions. At first
glance its easy to notice that all the values for the
external science test are higher than the maths test.
There is a 6 point difference between the medians and
a 5 point difference between the means, meaning that
the average score for the science test would be above
the median of the maths test. The most significant data
is the modes, the most frequent scores in the science
test are above the average score and far above the
maths mode. This could indicate that a small amount of
scores may have affected the data and it would not be
INTRODUCTION
Results of Year 11 Science test at Tryhard High

30
25
20
Frequency 15
10
5
0
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Received Scores
Results of Year 11 maths test at Tryhard High

30
25
20
Frequency 15
10
5
0
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Received Scores
The two histograms shown above show the scores at Tryhard High for the external year 11
maths and science tests. The maths results have a more consistent spread meaning that
students are receiving a range of scores which is probably something you could expect to
see in a test for a subject like maths. The science histogram skews to the right meaning
that a larger amount of students received higher scores and also a higher maximum
score.
It should be obvious that the Science students at Tryhard High perform much better than
the Maths students and there is a large amount of clear evidence supporting that fact but
to make the claim that the maths students are not making progress is a little out of hand.
The maths students have been making progress and although small, if they were not
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INTRODUCTION
making any progress you would most likely see a steady drop in maths scores. This does
not mean that the Maths students at Tryhard High are doing as well as they could and if
there was an actual improvement you would probably see a larger spike in test results. It
is not completely fair to come to these conclusions though seeing as we are only
observing the data from the past two years and having something larger to work with like
5 years would produce a clearer conclusion.
Page 6

Maths Folio Stats Probs

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Maths Folio Stats Probs

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FUN WITH

The purpose of this mathematical investigation is to explore through the context of

Last Year's External Math Comp Results

This Year's External Maths Comp Results

students with drastically low test

The table to the left, like in part A compares the mean

Results of Year 11 Science test at Tryhard High

Results of Year 11 maths test at Tryhard High

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