Viewer’s Guide to Against All Odds Part 1, What Is Statistics?

Cuing: start at the beginning of the episode. Skip Domino’s example (3:35 to 10:55).

Case study on creativity: do  ______________________  ______________ make a difference? If she calculates average scores for both groups, does that give the answer?  ______  ______  ____. How many children must she test before results become  ____________________? Even if results are far apart, how  __________________ can she be of her results? The answers come from  ____________________.

Statistics is a way of finding things out to help you make wiser  __________________.
 
Statistics is fundamental to the  ____________________ method, a way of taming  ______________________ and turning raw  ________ into arguments that resolve profound  __________________. Words can cloud arguments, and numbers can be used to confuse or trick us; but with statistics we have  ____________,  ____________________ arguments.

Statistics phase 1:  ____________________ data (Descriptive Statistics)  examples:
a. Pattern of  __________________ strikes, by time of day
b. A child’s  ____________  ________ compared to others of her age
c. Tying  ______________  ____________ to power-boat registrations
d. Do ball players’ salaries vary according to how many  ________  ________ they make?

Statistics phase 2:  __________________ data (Statistical Experiment)  examples:
a. Monitoring  __________________ in Chesapeake Bay by random samples of mud from the bay floor
b. Testing whether  ______________ prevents heart attacks (20000 doctors in two groups; treatment group had  ______ attacks and placebo group had  ______)
c. Sampling potato chips or most any process for  ______________  ______________
d. Political  __________ or  ______________
e. Space shuttle:  ______________________ analysis for safety engineering

Statistics phase 3:  ______________________ from data (Inferential Statistics)  examples:
a.  ____________  ____________________________ in the FBI
b. Battery  ________________ (Answer, with 95% confidence: 7½ hours ± 20 minutes)
c. Did Shakespeare  __________ this  ________?
d. Does a new program improve the  ______________ system?

The bottom line: Statistics lets you make the best use of information you have. Then you gather information you don’t have, to let you draw conclusions and make better decisions.

Statistics makes you more effective in your  ________, as a  ______________ making informed judgments on public issues, and as a savvy  ________________ weighing evidence for yourself.