Lesson 2.1: What are Data?
Lesson
Introduction “I should be able to see it rising on the horizon in the distant play of a thousand sparkling points of light…” Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Wind, Sand and Stars ![]720 The word "data" refers to the many measurements or observations (“sparkling points of light”) that you might collect in order to learn about a phenomenon or a population. Except for very small datasets, it is usually hard to learn much from "raw" data that are stored unsummarized in a table. The task before scientists and students is to sort, graph, and summarize - in other words, to transform - data into useful information. The word data is plural and encompasses the many data points that comprise a collection of measurements or observations. This kind of collection is called a dataset. A single point of data is one datum, so "one datum, many data." (However, we more often call a datum a "data point.") This lesson reviews a few fundamental aspects of data that can help students as they begin to explore and find meaning in data using Tuva. Key Ideas for Students: Understand data as a collection of a varied amount of measurements (observations) that is useful for learning about the nature of processes or phenomena. Use key terms data, dataset, case, attribute, microdata, aggregate data. Recognize and distinguish between categorical and quantitative data. Appreciate what it means to think “statistically” when drawing conclusions about a population or phenomenon from a dataset that represents just a sample of all individuals or events (the value of "many" vs "one" observation). Know that thinking statistically about data can be conceptual and informal.
Topics and standards: Data Analysis