Education Technology


Statistics: Population Mean: σ unknown

by Texas Instruments

Overview

Students calculate confidence intervals to estimate the true population mean when the standard deviation of the population is not known.

Key Steps

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    Students will be introduced to the assumptions needed to use the t distribution to estimate the true mean of a population when only the sample mean and standard deviation are known. They will investigate, by graphing, the relationship between a normal distribution and the t distribution.

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    Students are presented with a problem to calculate a confidence interval. They will compute the interval, finding the t-value and the error. Then the teacher will lead students in learning how to use the TInterval command for a second method of finding the interval.

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    As an extension, students are given a data set and asked to construct three confidence intervals. They will be able to use either method from the activity.