BASIC DEFINITIONS/TEXTBOOKS/GLOSSARIES

DEMONSTRATIONS/SIMULATIONS

SITE:http://www.statsoft.com

KEYWORDS:Variables, Normal Distribution, p-value, distribution tables, t-test

OVERVIEW:The link of interest in this site is the Electronic Statistics Textbook located on the homepage as the first listing of available resources. The textbook’s table of contents offer four main subjects that are valuable in explaining statistical terms. They are as follows: Elementary Concepts, Basic Statistics, Distribution Tables and Statistical Glossary. Click on the Electronic Statistics Textbook to enter the link.

ELEMENTARY CONCEPTS

1.Click on the first term under the table of contents on the right side of the screen.

2.Click on the underlined topic of interest from this page. 

3.Helpful subtopics with detailed answers to introductory questions include:

a.What are variables?

b.Dependent vs. Independent Variables

c.Measurement scales

d.What is “statistical significance” (p-value)?

e.Why the normal distribution is important?

BASIC STATISTICS

1.Click on the second term under the table of contents on the right side of the screen.

2.Click on the first and third bulleted headings, Descriptive Statistics and t-test for independent samples for information pertaining to these relevant topics.

STATISTICAL GLOSSARY

1.Scroll down the table of contents headings until Statistical Glossary appears (sixth from the last selection) and click on it for a thorough alphabetical listing of statistical terms.

DISTRIBUTION TABLES

1.Click on this topic from the table of contents for illustrations of various tables (third from the last selection).

2.The Z Table, t table and Chi-Square table are of particular interest here.

PURPOSES:This online textbook covers a wide variety of information from the novice to an experienced student in statistics.

SITE:http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~lane/rvls.html

KEYWORDS:Sampling, Confidence Intervals, Normal Distributions, and every other definition you may be interested in.

OVERVIEW:The “Virtual Statistics Laboratory,” provided by Professor David Lane at Rice University, contains an online textbook, simulations and demonstrations and case studies with real-life, practical examples. From the homepage, you are offered a choice of four main menus, click on the topic of interest and follow the directions below.

HYPERSTAT ONLINE

This online textbook is organized according to chapter in the center of the web page. The chapters of relevance here are numbers 2-10; for a description of each, please see the following. Listed in the right column of every chapter are other useful links for your perusal as needed.

Chapter 2: Describing Univariate Data

Here you will find definitions and examples for the following descriptive statistics: mean, median, mode, variance, histograms, stem and leaf displays. 

Chapter 3: Describing Bivariate Data

Key terms in this section include: scatterplots and introduction to Pearson’s correlation.

Chapter 4: Introduction to Probability

All five of the contents of this chapter are helpful: simple probability, conditional probability etc.

Chapter 5: Normal Distributions

All five of the contents of this chapter also provide good references: what is it, standard normal distribution etc.

Chapter 6: Sampling Distributions

There are ten headings in the contents of this chapter. If you’re having trouble understanding sampling distributions, click on all of them for a good review of the material.

Chapter 7: Point Estimation

This is a small chapter with three headings, all of which are useful: overview, characteristics of estimators, estimating variance.

Chapter 8: Confidence Intervals

All of the contents of this chapter also provide a good foundation for understanding confidence intervals.

Chapter 9: The Logic of Hypothesis Testing

Key concepts include: null hypothesis and one and two-tailed tests.

Chapter 10: Testing Hypotheses with Standard Errors

Refer to all headings for valuable information

SIMULATIONS/DEMONSTRATIONS

1.Refer back to the homepage of the original site and click on the second option from the main menu.

2.We will probably use four out of the five relevant demonstrations from this section in class, so it may be helpful for you to review here first.

3.The five topics of interest are: Mean and Median, Sampling Distributions, Confidence Intervals, Normal Approximation to the Binomial Distribution and Chi-Square Test.

4.Clicking on any one of these subjects will lead you to an instructional page with the directions on the right side of the screen and a “Begin” button on the left which will take you to the start of the demonstration.

CASE STUDIES

1.Return to the home page again for this link.

2. The experimental research listed on the right side provides real-life examples and sets of data. The study of interest for the purposes of this class is the second listed: Weapons and Aggression.

PURPOSES:Well-organized presentation of basic and advanced statistical concepts.

SITE:http://trochim.human.cornell.edu/kb/contents.htm

   

KEYWORDS:Sampling, Normal Distribution, t-test, Reliability, Validity, Survey, Scaling, Design

OVERVIEW:Dr. William Trochim is a professor of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell University and calls his site the “Research Methods Knowledge Base.” Dr. Trochim’s definitions and explanations of statistical terms, both beginner and advanced, are comprehensive and easily understood. 

1.All of the material is helpful here but for the purposes of this class, refer to Chapter headings four through seven for relevant information.

2.From the fourth heading, Sampling, all of the subtopics may be useful to you: external validity, sampling terminology, statistical terms in sampling, probability sampling and nonprobability sampling.

3.The fifth heading, Measurement, provides the following useful subtopics: construct validity, reliability, survey research, scaling and qualitative measures.

4.The sixth heading, Design, offers good explanations for the following: internal validity and introduction to design.

5.The seventh heading, Analysis, provides information regarding: descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, correlation etc.) and inferential statistics (t-test).

PURPOSES:Dr. Trochim provides comprehensive and well-described basic examples.

GENERAL DATA

SITE:http://www.statistics.com

KEYWORDS:General Stats

OVERVIEW:This site contains numerous statistical data sources a variety of fields. On their homepage are links to areas such as politics and Crime.

1.Click on the subject area Crime.

2.The site contains over fifty links to various public interest organizations and governmental statistics. Browse through the topics to find which stats you need to collect.

3.Examples include stats on stalking, sexual assault on children and women and the number of officers killed in the line of duty.

PURPOSES:Variety of crime and justice statistics from various fields available.

SITE:http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/NACJD/archive.html

KEYWORDS:General Stats

OVERVIEW:The National Archive of Criminal Justice Data provides downloadable collections of criminal justice data free of charge. Subject headings include Attitude Surveys, Community Studies, Official Statistics. Click on any area highlighted on this page or use the “Search Holdings” box located on the left-hand side of the page to find a topic of interest.

PURPOSES:Reliable data that has been archived and processed. This site takes time to navigate due to the wealth of information.

GOVERNMENTAL DATA

SITE:http://www.census.gov

KEYWORDS:Government, United States, SES

OVERVIEW:This site, as you can imagine, maintained by the Census bureau, has demographic and socioeconomic data for not only the United States, but for 227 countries all over the world. Its homepage is well-organized and easily navigated. There is an alphabetical subject index on the left that helps orient you as to what kinds of information is presented on this site. Of particular interest is the FedStats link located to the right of the Special Topics heading.

1.Click on Fedstats to access statistical information presented by over 70 governmental agencies.

2.Once there, you can click on the Agencies link that provides a list of all participating agencies, including the Bureau of Justice Statistics OR click on the A-Z link located at the top of the left column.

3.Search under the letter “C” to access information on the topics of Crime and Criminal Justice, such as “Violent,” “Children,” “Delinquency and Victimization,” “Courts and Sentencing,” and “Criminal records.”

PURPOSES:General:

1.Reliable source of governmental statistics.

2.Convenient place to find all kinds of demographic and socioeconomic for every region in the country, as well as many places all over the world.

3.Link to the Office of Justice Statistics to acquire stats relevant to the field.

SITE:http://www.newfederalism.urban.org

KEYWORDS:Government, United States, SES, Fiscal

OVERVIEW:Maintained by the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., this site has statistics and tracking data for the fifty states, including fiscal /economic and demographic data.

PURPOSES:Also a reliable source of data for the United States.

DATABASES OF LINKS

SITE:http://www.amstat.org

http://www.stat.ufl.edu/vlib.statistics.html

http://www.research.ed.asu.edu

http://www.execpc.com/~helberg/statistics.html

KEYWORDS:Links, webliographies

OVERVIEW:These sites provide very general and broad lists and databases of links divided into categories that detail statistical resources on the web. 

PURPOSES:If you need a starting point, these sites will give you a good sense of what kinds of information related to statistics are out there.