Math 15 Module for October 5-9, 2020

LESSON 4: DATA MANAGEMENT

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this lesson, you are expected to:

1. Organize and present data in forms that are both meaningful and useful to decision makers
2. Use a variety of statistical tools to process and manage numerical data
3. Use the methods of linear regression and correlations to predict the value of variable given
certain conditions; and
4. Advocate the use of statistical data in making important decisions.

Basic Statistical Concepts

The study of statistics can be organized in different ways. One way is to subdivide
statistics into two branches: descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. To understand the
difference between the two, definitions of populations and sample are helpful.

A population generally consists of totality of the observations, individuals or objects in

which the investigator is interested. One should not start collecting data without carefully
defining the population to be considered in the study. It should be in agreement with the
objective, and its statistical elements should be properly identified. A sample is a portion of a
population. This is a small but representative cross section of the population. It is used to give
inferences on the population from which it was extracted.

If a researcher gathers data from a sample and uses the statistics generated to reach
conclusions about the population from which the sample was drawn, it is called inferential
statistics. For example, a soft drink company asked 500 students from a certain university about
the number of bottles of soft drink they consumed in a week and infer from the data the number
of bottles of soft drink consumed by all 50,000 students in the campus.

Statisticians and researchers are interested in particular variables of a sample or

population. A variable is a characteristic of interest about an object under investigation that can
take on different possible outcomes, such as age, hair color, height, weight and religious
preference.

There are basically two kinds of variables:

1. Qualitative variables are variables that can be placed into distinct categories, according to
some characteristics or attribute. For example, if subjects are classified according to sex (male
or female), then the variable gender is qualitative. Some other examples of qualitative
variables are religious preference and geographic location.

2. Quantitative variables are numerical and can be ordered or ranked. For example, the variable
age is numerical and the people can be ranked according to their ages. Some other examples
of quantitative variables are height, weight and body temperature.

Quantitative variable can be further classified into two groups: discrete and continuous.
 Discrete variables can be assigned values such as 0, 1, 2 and 3 and are said to be
countable. The data are obtained by means of counting. Examples of discrete variables are the
number of children in a family and the number of calls received by a telephone operator each
day for a month. Continuous variables, on the other hand, can assume an infinite number of
values in an interval between any two specific values. The data for this variable are obtained
by means of direct or indirect measuring. Temperature, for example, is a continuous variable,
since the variable can assume an infinite number of values between any two given
temperatures.

Four levels of data measurement:

Nominal Level, Ordinal Level, Interval Level, Ratio Level

Data can be presented in different forms as follows:

1. Textual presentation – presents data in a paragraph form which combines text and figures.
Examples are data in business, finance, economics or industries which are used to make
emphasis or to make comparisons, contrasts, syntheses, generalizations or findings.

2. Tabular presentations – presents data in tables. Tabulation is a process of summarizing

classified data and arranging them in a table. It gives a more precise, systematic, and easy and
orderly presentation of data in rows and columns. It makes comparison of figures easy and
comprehensible. The table below displays the Philippine population by region based on the
2010 and 2015 censuses.

REGION 2010 2015

PHILIPPINES 92,337,582 100,981,437
NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION 11,855,975 12,877,253
CORDILLERA ADMINISTRATIVE REGION 1,616,867 1,722,006
REGION 1 – ILOCOS 4,748,372 5,026,128
REGION II – CAGAYAN VALEY 3,229,163 3,451,410
REGION III – CENTRAL LUZON 10,137,737 11,218,177
REGION IV-A – CALABARZON 12,609,803 14,414,774
MIMAROPA REGION 1 2,744,671 2,963,360
REGION V – BICOL 5,420,411 5,796,989
REGION VI – WESTERN VISAYAS 4,194,579 4,477,247
REGION VII – CENTRAL VISAYAS 5,513,514 6,041,903
NEGROS ISLAND REGION 2 4,194,525 4,414,131
REGION VIII – EASTERN VISAYAS 4,101,322 4,440,150
REGION IX – ZAMBOANGA PENINSULA 3,407,353 3,629,783
REGION X – NORTHERN MINDANAO 4,297,323 4,689,302
REGION XI – DAVAO REGION 4,468,563 4,893,318
REGION XII – SOCCSKSARGEN 4,109,571 4,545,276
REGION XIII – CARAGA 2,429,224 2,596,709
ARMM 3,256,140 3,781,387

Source: Philippine Statistics Authority

3. Graphical presentation – is an effective method of presenting statistical results and can present
clear picture of the data. There are several kinds of graphs, and some of these are as follows:

Bar Graph consists of bars either vertically or horizontally and usually constructed for
comparative purposes. The lengths of the bars represent the frequencies or magnitudes of the
quantities being compared.
 Line Graph shows the relationship between two or more sets of quantities. It may show
the relationship between two variables, and it is best used to establish trends.

Pie Chart is used to represent quantities that make up a whole. It is a circular diagram
cut into subdivisions. The size of each section indicates the proportion of each component part of
the whole. The pie chart can be constructed using percent or the actual figures. The slices of the
pie must be drawn in proportion to the different values of the items.