Students often are confused about the differences between bar graphs and histograms. The authors discuss some reasons behind this confusion and offer suggestions that help clarify thinking.

The Tukey mean-difference plot, also called the Bland-Altman plot, is a recognized graphical tool in the exploration of biometrical data. We show that this technique deserves a place on an introductory statistics course by encouraging students to think about the kind of graph they wish to create, rather than just creating the default graph for the…

Chocolate chip cookies are used to illustrate the importance and effectiveness of control charts in Statistical Process Control. By counting the number of chocolate chips, creating the spreadsheet, calculating the control limits and graphing the control charts, the student becomes actively engaged in the learning process. In addition, examining…

Graphical model validation techniques for linear normal models are often used to check the assumptions underlying a statistical model. We describe an approach to provide "instant experience" in looking at a graphical model validation plot, so it becomes easier to validate if any of the underlying assumptions are violated.

Four rather different scatterplots of two variables X and Y are given, which, after dichotomizing X and Y, result in identical fourfold-tables misleadingly showing no association. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

The article illustrates how statistical content and pedagogical reasoning were taught in tandem in an undergraduate course. A typical day in the course is described. It is also suggested that practising teachers can benefit from strategies used in the course. (Contains 1 table and 3 figures.)

Data from a cough challenge study are displayed with dot charts to demonstrate the importance of graphs in understanding data, principles of graph construction and visual perception. The data are available for use in the classroom.

This paper shows how the variance and standard deviation can be represented graphically by looking at each squared deviation as a graphical object--in particular, as a square. A series of displays show how the standard deviation is the size of the average square.

The Venn diagram is suggested as a graphical solution to conjunction fallacies and a modification of it is suggested to more fully communicate set relations.

The least squares method of fitting a line is not one that naturally occurs to students. We present three tasks to understand student views on how lines may be fit.

This article addresses an important problem of graphing quantitative data: should one include zero on the scale showing magnitude? Based on a real time series example, the problem is discussed and some recommendations are proposed.

The book "If the World Were a Village," by David J. Smith, is the context for analysing and creating graphs of the world's demographic information. Students examine numerical information regarding the more than six billion world inhabitants by imagining the world's population as 100 people.

A simple way is given to create residual plots that are words or pictures. Three illustrative examples are presented.

This article describes use of a novel statistical activity with primary school children.

Standard distributions are ubiquitous but not unique. With suitable scaling, the graph of a standard distribution serves as the graph for every distribution in the family. The standard exponential can easily be taught in elementary statistics courses.