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Are they Really That Tall?

Student Worksheet 1




Name __________________________      Period_______      Date_______________



This activity will focus on analysis of one-variable statistics. This is called univariate data. Point your web browser to www.nba.com. Click on "teams" and then click on the team that you have been assigned. Each team site will have the same team and individual statistics available. Click on "players" and begin.

NBA Team ________________________________________     Number of Players _______

  1. Print the "players" page, then back to the team site and choose the "stats" page. Print the "stats" page. You should be able to answer most of the questions and perform the data analysis with these two pages. Later on you might choose to look at only one player from your team. You can return to the site and print the information concerning the one player.

  2. Complete the table below with the information on the Player page.

Player

Height

(ft and in)

Height

(in decimal feet)

Age

(as of today)

Years in the NBA
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         

  1. What is the sum of the ages of the players? _______

  2. Divide the sum by the number of players to obtain the mean (average) age of the players on your team. ____

  3. What is the median age of the players on your team? ______

  4. Is the mean larger or smaller than the median? ___________ What do you think is the significance of one being larger than the other?_________________________________________________________________




  5. Using technology, construct a boxplot of the ages of the players. Sketch the boxplot below, making sure to label all values of the 5-number summary. (minimum, maximum, median, quartile 1, and quartile 3)






    _|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_






  6. Describe the boxplot. _____________________________________________________________________

  7. Are there any outliers? __________ If so, which player (s)? ______________________________________

  8. What is the range of the ages of the players on your team? _____________

  9. Compare this with the others in your group. Is there another team that has a greater range? _____ What would cause a team to have a greater range of ages than yours? ___________________________________

  10. List the heights of the players on your team in order from least to greatest. You can do this quickly by entering the heights of the players in L1 in the calculator/software. Choose the Sort (A) command and the heights will be sorted in ascending order. A quick way to enter the heights using feet in decimals is to type in the feet + inches/12. The technology will see this as a repeating decimal and use the exact values in your computations.

For 6' 7", type 6 + 7/12 Enter The value 6.5833 will be returned. You will notice the decimal values will be rounded off in the list but if you highlight the value you will see more decimal places at the bottom of the screen.

  1. Construct a histogram of the heights of the players on your team and sketch the graph from the technology screen below. Be sure to include scales and labels on your axes.

  2. Describe the shape of the histogram. _______________________________________________________

  3. Do you have a player on your team that is much taller or shorter than the others? ____________________

  4. How can you find this player on the histogram? _______________________________________________

  5. What information do you think is more obvious on a boxplot than a histogram and vice-versa? __________________________________________________________________________________

  6. Have the technology construct a boxplot of the heights to confirm your conclusions. Compare the histograms and boxplots in your group. What conclusions can you make about the heights of the players on the teams in your group? ________________________________________________________________

  7. Find the standard deviation of the heights of your players. __________

  8. Which team in the NBA do you think has the largest standard deviation and why?

  9. Write a sentence about the importance of the mean and the standard deviation of the heights for your team.

    We are now going to augment the lists of all the teams and look at the WHOLE NBA. Listen carefully to the directions that are given. You will first augment to the group leader, and then the leader will augment to the teacher calculator. Once the WHOLE NBA is in the teacher calculator, we will link back that list to the group leaders and then back to each of you.

  10. Now that you have the WHOLE NBA, answer the following:

    1. Sort your list.
    2. Find the sum of the heights of these players. ________
    3. How many players are listed? _______
    4. What is the mean height of the WHOLE NBA? _______
    5. How does this compare with your team? _______
    6. If there is a big difference, what explanation can you give for it? _____________

  11. Find the standard deviation of the WHOLE NBA? _________ How does this compare with the standard deviation of your team? If there is a big difference, what explanation can you give for it?

  12. Find the range of heights in the NBA? _________ How does this compare with your team?

  13. Use your calculator to make a histogram of the heights of the WHOLE NBA.

    1. Are there any outliers? ________ If so, what are the heights of the players that are the outliers? _____________________________

  14. Have your calculator draw a Box and Whisker plot of the data. Can you see any outliers with this type of graph? ___________

  15. What characteristics of the data are obvious from a histogram that you would not observe from the Box and Whisker plot and vice-versa?

    ___________________________________________________________________


The Integrating Technology into Math Instruction webpages project is partially funded by a grant from The Boeing Company. Integrating Technology into Math Instruction is a project of +PLUS+ and is displayed on the Los Angeles Educational Partnership Learning Exchange. +PLUS+ is an initiative of the Los Angeles Educational Partnership.
Updated June 2000