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 didn’t learn anything in maths last year! They
just haven’t 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 This year

Min 5 6
Mean 13.2 18.6
Median 13 19
Mode 11, 14 15
Max 30 32

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 for the fact that it now falls on the lower half of the
data. In the previous year the mode fell on either
This
LastYear's
Year'sExternal
ExternalMaths Comp
Math Comp side of the median.
Results
Results
Figure 2
30
45
40
Figure 3
25
35
20
30
25
15
20
10
15
10
5
5
Page 1 0
5
0 10
5 15
10 20
15 25
20 30
25 35
30 40
35

Frequency
Frequency
INTRODUCTION

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 year’s test is smaller and no student received a score lower than 5. This
year more people received higher scores with two 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.

Last year This Year

Standard Deviation 4.8 30

Range 5.6 26

Figure 5

The standard deviation of the test data (figure 5) doesn’t 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 don’t 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 2
INTRODUCTION

Maths Mean The table to the left, like in part A compares the mean median and
18.6
mode of derived from the data of the external maths and science
  Median 19
competitions. At first glance it’s easy to notice that all the values
  Mode 15
for the external science test are higher than the maths test. There
is a 6 point difference between the medians and a 5 point
Science Mean 23.6 difference between the means, meaning that the average score for
  Median 24 the science test would be above the median of the maths test. The
  Modes 21, 22, most significant data is the modes, the most frequent scores in
26, 27, 28 the science test are above the average score and far above the
maths mode. This could indicate that a small amount of students with drastically low test scores may have
affected the data and it would not be fair to end here.

Results
Results
of Year
of Year
11 maths
11 Science
test attest
Tryhard
at
HighTryhard High The two histograms shown above show the
scores at Tryhard High for the external year 11
30
25 maths and science tests. The maths results have
20 a more consistent spread meaning that students
Frequency

15 are receiving a range of scores which is probably

10 something you could expect to see in a test for a
5 subject like maths. The science histogram skews
0 to the right meaning that a larger amount of
55 10 1515 2020 25 2530 3035 35
10 40 40
45
students received higher scores and also a
Received Scores
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 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.

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