Individual assignment

For your individual assignment, please respond fully to the following 2 questions. Be sure and cite in your separate bibliography page. Please paste the questions in the body of your paper and then respond. It is due on Feb. 22 (11:59 p.m.).

1. Define the levels (or scales) of measurement (nominal, ordinal, interval levels) AND provide an example of each [4 points].

2. Please explain “central tendency” as describing “mean”, “median”, and “mode”. Please discuss why it is important to know in statistics and explain how to calculate each value. If necessary, you can use examples [3 points].

3. Although computer software is used to calculate statistics, some students find that hand calculation furthers their conceptual understanding. Consider the following values: 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 13, 16, and 18. Calculate the mean, median, and mode. Please use Excel to calculate the above statistics and verify them using the computer. (To practice, you can make up your own data, too.) (Please check “Useful resources for individual assignment 1” below before answering this question) [3 points].

* Format:

12pt. Times New Roman, Double-spaced

Either .doc or .pdf form is accepted.

** Useful resources for individual assignment 1

A. To look for simple explanation of various concepts in descriptive statistics and calculation of the three measures of central tendency, you can refer to the descriptive statistics webpage on this website

B. You will be asked to carry out some basic analysis in Excel for this discussion. To install Analysis Toolpack in Excel and learn how to perform descriptive statistics procedures in Excel, please read Chapter 18 (Excel User’s Guide) in the Essential Statistics workbook.

Here is how I would install Analysis Toolpack in Excel

To install the Data Analysis ToolPak in Excel, follow these steps:

• Open an Excel file
• Go to File-Options-click on Add-ins-click on Analysis ToolPak-click OK-In case the Analysis ToolPak is not listed n the Add-Ins Available box, click Browse to locate it. After you load the Analysis ToolPak, the Data Analysis command will be available under the Data tab (on the right-hand side of the menu bar).

C. Please check out this useful video that shows the calculation of descriptive statistics in Excel.

*** Need to know

Please note for the assignments, the following sources are not acceptable for use in this course since they are not confirmed sites: Wikipedia, Fact Monster, Answers.com, About.com, WiseGeek, Yahoo Answers, The Free Dictionary, Merriam Webster online, eNotes, Facebook, Ask.com, Twitter, boundless.com, study.com, coursehero.com, cliffnotes.com, or any similar source which is randomly found on the internet. Note that even Wikipedia has a disclaimer that it cannot be trusted as a valid source: . You should instead use sources found in the course content and also at Odum library that are valid and confirmed. For further assistance, please contact the VSU writing center or a librarian for help.