Statistical Simulation in Common Core Algebra II

Posted on

So, the statistics standards in Common Core Algebra II specify a lot of use of simulation to establish confidence intervals and other statistical measures of variability. I like these standards, but was having a hard time thinking about how to really fulfill them in a meaningful way.

So, I attacked them head on. Based on work from the G.A.I.S.E. Report (google it), I created three programs for the TI-84+ operating system (they work fine on the 83+) that perform these simulations.

The first program allows you to pick a random sample from a population to calculate sample means and see their distributions. The second allows you to pull a sample from a population with a known proportion, and then see a distribution of sample proportions. Finally, the last program scrambles up treatment data to test the difference in treatment means.

I have not gotten them up on TI’s site, yet, but plan to later on in the spring. I’m offering them now, in case people want to type one or all of them into their calculators and start to really play with these simulation standards.

The document includes an explanation of the three programs and their code.

Unit #13.Simulation Code for TI Programs