Lesson 1: Introducing Statistics

TIME FRAME:1 hour session

OVERVIEW OF LESSON
In decision making, we use statistics although some of us may not be aware of it. In this lesson,
students must realize that to decide logically, they need to use statistics. An inquiry could be
answered or a problem could be solved through the use of statistics. In fact, without knowing it we
use statistics in our daily activities.

LEARNING COMPETENCIES: At the end of the lesson, the learner should be able to identify
questions that could be answered using a statistical process and describe the activities involved in
a statistical process.

LESSON OUTLINE:
1. Motivation
2. Statistics as a Tool in Decision-Making
3. Statistical Process in Solving a Problem
Questions

Group1:
∙ How old is your mother?
∙ Is the vehicle of the Mayor of our city/town/municipality bigger than the vehicle used by
the President of the Philippines?
∙ How many days are there in December?
∙ Does the Principal of the school has a post graduate degree?
∙ How much does the Barangay Captain receive as allowance?
∙ What is the weight of my smallest classmate?

Group2
∙ Do dogs eat more than cats?
∙ Does it rain more in our country than in Thailand?
∙ Do math teachers earn more than science teachers?
∙ How many books do my classmates usually bring to school?
∙ What is the proportion of Filipino children aged 0 to 5 years who are underweight or
overweight for their age?
The first group of questions could be answered by a piece of information which is considered always
true. There is a correct answer which is based on a fact and you don’t need the process of inquiry to
answer such kind of question. For example, there is one and only one correct answer to the first
question in Group 1 and that is your age as of your last birthday or the number of years since your
birth year.

On the other hand, in the second group of questions one needs observations or data to be able to
respond to the question. In some questions you need to get the observations or responses of all those
concerned to be able to answer the question. On the first question in the second group, you need to
ask all the people in the locality about their age and among the values you obtained you get a
representative value. To answer the second question in the second group, you need to get the amount
of food that all dogs and cats eat to respond to the question. However, we know that is not feasible to
do so. Thus what you can do is get a representative group of dogs and another representative group
for the cats. Then we measure the amount of food each group of animal eats. From these two sets of
values, we could then infer whether dogs do eat more than cats.
So as you can see in the second group of questions you need more information or data to be able to
answer the question. Either you need to get observations from all those concerned or you get
representative groups from which you gather your data. But in both cases, you need data to be able to
respond to the question. Using data to find an answer or a solution to a problem or an inquiry is
actually using the statistical process or doing it with statistics.

Now, let us formalize what we discussed and know more about statistics and how we use it in
decision-making.

Statistics as a Tool in Decision-Making

Statistics is defined as a science that studies data to be able to make a decision. Hence, it is a tool in
decision-making process. Mention that Statistics as a science involves the methods of collecting,
processing, summarizing and analyzing data in order to provide answers or solutions to an inquiry.
One also needs to interpret and communicate the results of the methods identified above to support a
decision that one makes when faced with a problem or an inquiry.
Statistics enable us to
∙ characterize persons, objects, situations, and phenomena;
∙ explain relationships among variables;
∙ formulate objective assessments and comparisons; and, more importantly
∙ make evidence-based decisions and predictions.
And to use Statistics in decision-making there is a statistical process to follow which is to be
discussed in the next section.

Statistical Process in Solving a Problem

You may go back to one of the questions identified in the second group and use it to discuss the
components of a statistical process. For illustration on how to do it, let us discuss how we could
answer the question “Do dogs eat more than cats?”
As discussed earlier, this question requires you to gather data to generate statistics which will serve
as basis in answering the query. There should be plan or a design on how to collect the data so that
the information we get from it is enough or sufficient for us to minimize any bias in responding to
the query. In relation to the query, we said earlier that we cannot gather the data from all dogs and
cats. Hence, the plan is to get representative group of dogs and another representative group of cats.
These representative groups were observed for some characteristics like the animal weight, amount
of food in grams eaten per day and breed of the animal. Included in the plan are factors like how
many dogs and cats are included in the group, how to select those included in the representative
groups and when to observe these animals for their characteristics.
After the data were gathered, we must verify the quality of the data to make a good decision. Data
quality check could be done as we process the data to summarize the information extracted from the
data. Then using this information, one can then make a decision or provide answers to the problem
or question at hand.
To summarize, a statistical process in making a decision or providing solutions to a problem include
the following:
∙ Planning or designing the collection of data to answer statistical questions in a way that
maximizes information content and minimizes bias;
∙ Collecting the data as required in the plan;
∙ Verifying the quality of the data after they were collected;
∙ Summarizing the information extracted from the data; and
∙ Examining the summary statistics so that insight and meaningful information can be
produced to support decision-making or solutions to the question or problem at hand.
Hence, several activities make up a statistical process which for some the process is simple but for
others it might be a little bit complicated to implement. Also, not all questions or problems could be
answered by a simple statistical process. There are indeed problems that need complex statistical
process. However, one can be assured that logical decisions or solutions could be formulated using
a statistical process.

KEY POINTS
∙ Difference between questions that could be and those that could not answered using
Statistics.
∙ Statistics is a science that studies data.
∙ There are many uses of Statistics but its main use is in decision-making.
∙ Logical decisions or solutions to a problem could be attained through a statistical process.