Practical Statistics by Example Using Microsoft Excel and Minitab

Educational Philosophy In our many years of teaching introductory statistics courses at the University of South Florida and Baruch College, we have continually searched for ways to improve the teaching of these courses. Our vision for teaching these introductory statistics courses has been shaped by active participation in a series of professional conferences as well as the reality of serving a diverse group of students at a large university. Over the years, our vision has come to include these principles: Students need a frame of reference when learning about a subject, especially one that is not their major. That frame of reference for introductory statistics students should be the various areas in which statistics can be applied, including business, biology, education, engineering, mathematics, political science, psychology, and sociology. Each statistical topic needs to be related to at least one of these areas of application. Virtually all the students taking introductory statistics courses are majoring in areas other than statistics. Introductory courses should focus on underlying principles that are important for non-statistics majors. The use of spreadsheet and/or statistical software should be integrated into all aspects of the introductory statistics course. The reality that exists in the workplace is that spreadsheet software (and sometimes statistical software) is most typically available on the desktop. Our teaching approach needs to recognize this reality and make our courses more consistent with the workplace environment. Textbooks that use software must provide instructions at a depth that maximizes the student's ability to use the software with a minimum risk of failure. The focus in teaching each topic should be on (1) the application of the topic to a specific problem, (2) the interpretation of results, (3) the presentation of assumptions, (4) the evaluation of the assumptions, and (5) the discussion of what should be done if the assumptions are violated. These points are particularly important in regression and forecasting and in hypothesis testing. Although the illustration of some computations is inevitable, the focus on computations should be minimized. Both classroom examples and homework exercises should relate to actual or realistic data as much as possible. Students should be encouraged to look beyond the statistical analysis of data to the interpretation of results in an applied context, preferably through the use of case studies. This philosophy led us to developPractical Statistics by Example Using Microsoft Excel and MINITAB . Designed as an introductory text in statistics for students with a background in college algebra, our text contains the following features that distinguish it from the many other statistics texts available. "By Example" Introduction of Concepts Each new idea is introduced and illustrated by real data-based examples taken from a wide variety of disciplines and sources. These examples demonstrate how to solve various types of statistical problems encountered in the real world. We believe that students better understand definitions, generalizations, and conceptsafterseeing a real application. Each example is set off for easy identification and contains a full, detailed solution to the problem. H3>Microsoft Excel and MINITAB as Tools for Statistical Analysis The spreadsheet application Microsoft Excel and the statistical software MINITAB are integrated throughout the entire text. Many texts published and revised in the past twenty years have incorporated the use of popular statistical software packages such as SAS, SPSS, and MINITAB. Few, however, have successfully integrated Excel. With the increasing functionality and power of worksheet applications, virtually all kinds of statistical analyses taught in the introductorySincich, Terry is the author of 'Practical Statistics by Example Using Microsoft Excel and Minitab', published 2001 under ISBN 9780130415219 and ISBN 0130415219.