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Click one of the links below to view a movie. The QuickTime files have the highest resolution. If the QuickTime movie does not play correctly, you can download the free QuickTime Player for Windows or Macintosh ( download here ). Movies are also available in Microsoft AVI format, which will work on all versions of Microsoft Windows (98-XP) but at a reduced image quality.
1. TinkerPlots Basics
Playing time: 5 minutes 24 seconds.
Get a first introduction to TinkerPlots. Using data from Cats.tp, learn how order, stack, and separate work individually. Then see how to use these operations in combination to make and use stacked dot plots. Other features demonstrated include mix-up, color key, reference lines, Drawing tool, icon resizing, and undo. After watching this movie, you'll know enough to start using TinkerPlots to analyze one of the existing data sets.
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2. Adding Data
Playing time: 6 minutes 8 seconds.
Learn how to get new data into TinkerPlots. First learn how to make a new stack of data cards, create attribute names and units, and enter data for a few cases in a backpack study. Then see how to use case tables to enter data more quickly, and to detect and correct data-entry errors. Finally learn how to copy data from a spreadsheet and paste them into TinkerPlots and import data directly from a Web page.
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3. Making Common Graphs
Playing time: 5 minutes 15 seconds.
Learn to make and interpret four common graphs using TinkerPlots. First see how to examine the amount of money 82 high-school students were carrying on them by using binned and fully separated dot plots. Then learn how to transform a dot plot of these data into a value bar graph to show the relation between these two types of graphs. Returning to the dot plot, learn how to transform it into a histogram. Finally, learn how to make and use pie graphs to explore whether boys are more likely than girls to have a curfew.
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4. Comparing Groups
Playing time: 5 minutes 21 seconds.
Learn how to use TinkerPlots features to make group comparisons. Learn several methods to investigate whether members of unions tend to be paid more than non-union members. First see how to use dividers to compare how many cases from each group are above a cut point. This is a technique many students use, and we discuss why they should use percents when the groups are of different sizes. Then learn how to use dividers, medians, and hat plots to compare where the data in each group are centered, and how they are spread.
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5. Exploring Relationships
Playing time: 5 minutes 50 seconds.
Learn how to use TinkerPlots features and graphs to see how two numeric attributes are related. First see how to use time-series graphs to look at how temperature changed over 111 consecutive days in New York City. Then learn how to use the same graphs to look at how measures of ground-level ozone changed over the same period. Finally explore how temperature and ozone are related: we'll begin with a color gradient display that students find easy to interpret and transform it in several steps into a scatter plot with a hand-drawn line of fit.
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This project is supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation (grant no. ).
Opinions expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Foundation. |
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