| 1 | <p>These tutorials are designed to show essential data analysis techniques using a spreadsheet program such as Excel. Follow the tutorials in sequence to learn the fundamentals of using a spreadsheet program to organize data, use formulae and functions to calculate statistical values including mean, standard deviation, standard error of the mean, 95% confidence intervals, plot graphs with error bars, perform t-tests, and plot the data as histograms.</p> | 1 | <p>Students gained graphing skills, general Excel skills and some knowledge about the students’ t-test. My students had a very wide range or abilities coming into this work, but I think that all got something from it. They worked together out of class to complete Tutorials 1-3 as homework, which of course has its benefits (teamwork, cooperation and reinforcing the material) and minuses (copying others work without understanding it). By working together out of class, they learned the mechanics of what to do in Excel. I removed the null hypothesis from Tutorial 4 and also keep only the long-hand calculation of a “t” value, and emphasize how to determine significance using the table. My students needed more help understanding what the “t” value means. During the second half of the semester, students used these skills to analyze data they collected in lab - pooled class results from an enzyme lab.<meta charset="utf-8" /></p> |
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