STAT10010 Introductory Statistics

Lab 1

1. Aims of Lab 1.
i. Learn how to access the Minitab software in UCD.
ii. Become familiar with how to enter data into Minitab.
iii. Become familiar with how to save your Minitab work.
iv. Become familiar with how to load a data set into Minitab.

2. What is Minitab?
Most of Statistics involves analysing data which have resulted from a survey someone has
conducted, or from an experiment someone has carried out. Usually there is too much data
to record it all by hand, and it would be too complicated to try to analyse the data using a
calculator.

Luckily there are many statistical software packages which we can use to record and
analyse our data. One such statistical software package is called Minitab. Throughout
STAT10010 we will use Minitab to help illustrate some of the ideas we meet in lectures
and to analyse some example data sets. Hopefully you will also use Minitab in the future to
analyse your own data (for example, if you do a final year research project).

3. How do I open Minitab?
Follow the instructions on the handout you have been given to access Minitab and to access
your Home directory where you will create a folder to save your STAT10010 lab work.
This handout is also available on Blackboard, so you can refer to it whenever you need it in
the future.

You have now achieved aim 1 for this lab.





4. How do I enter data into Minitab?
Lets begin to use Minitab by collecting some data and then entering the data weve
collected into Minitab. Say we are interested in examining the group of students taking
STAT10010. We might then want to record things (called variables in Statistics) like the
name of a student, which degree programme they are taking, how many years they have
been in UCD, their gender, where they live and if they have taken a Statistics course
before, for example.
Record each of these variables for the 10 students seated nearest to you i.e. ask each of the
10 students seated nearest to you their name, their degree programme, their gender etc. You
might want to think about what way you will record each of the variables. For example,
what would be a good way to record degree programme? These are the sorts of things you
need to think about when collecting data.
Record the data youve collected on a piece of paper. We will want to summarize the data
youve collected. To do this we will input the data into Minitab and analyze it there.



In the worksheet window in Minitab you will see some rows (numbered 1, 2, .) and some
columns (numbered C1, C2, ). It is standard to use each row to represent a student (often
called an observation in Statistics) and each column to represent a variable of interest.

We can enter the names of the variables that we are interested in at the top of the columns.
For example, lets let column C1 record the name of a student. Click in the cell under C1
and type `Name. Similarly label columns to record the rest of the variables in your data
set. Now, type the data youve collected on each student in a separate row of your
worksheet.

Your Minitab worksheet should now look something like one below.


You will notice that the column titles for some variables have changed. Can you see why?

Those columns which hold a variable which is recorded as text now have a T at the end
(eg. C1-T). Those columns which hold a numeric variable (eg. years) remain unchanged.
We often tend to think of data as long lists of numbers but this is not necessarily true -
sometimes data is numeric but sometimes it is text it is all data!

Minitab has lots of inbuilt functions which we can use to summarize and analyse our data.
Today we will just look at some tables which will summarise the data you have collected.

In the menu bar, go to Stat -> Tables -> Tally Individual Variables . Lets examine a
table which summarises for us the gender distribution in STAT10010. Double click on
Gender and ensure the Counts box is checked. Click OK.

In the Session window in Minitab you should now see a table summarising the gender
variable in your data set, similar to that illustrated below. How would you explain or
summarise (in words) what the table tells you?


Create some more summarising tables for some of the other variables that you have
recorded. Based on your tables, what other comments might you make about the students
taking STAT10010?

Do you think your data give a fair picture of the students taking STAT10010? Think about
things like the number of students on which you recorded data. Do you think 10 students
give a fair representation of the entire class? Think about the students in your lab class
are they likely to be similar or dissimilar to each other? What time of the day is your lab
class? Did all the students you spoke to answer your questions? Think about how you
phrased your questions and about how you chose to record your data. Hopefully this toy
data collection exercise has made you think about how data are collected, before we even
begin to examine it!
You have now achieved aim 2 for this lab.

5. How do I save my Minitab work?
You can either save the worksheet by itself (as a .MTW file), or you can save the
worksheet and the session window as a Minitab project (as a .MPJ file).
To save the worksheet only, click in the worksheet window. Then go to File -> Save
Current Worksheet As and save the worksheet as STAT10010_Lab1.mtw in the folder
you created earlier on your H drive.
To save the worksheet and the output in the session window together, go to File -> Save
Project As and save the entire project as STAT10010_Lab1.mpj to the relevant folder
on your H drive.
You have now achieved aim 3 for this lab.


6. How do I load a data set into Minitab?

Imagine you want to reopen your work from todays lab next week to do some revision. To
load your worksheet of data into Minitab go to File -> Open Worksheet and select the
relevant file from your H drive.

If you would prefer to load the entire project go to File -> Open Project and select the
relevant file from your H drive.
You have now achieved aim 4 for this lab.





oOo
You now have collected some data, used a statistical software package, summarised the
data you have collected and thought about the way in which you collected your data
youve taken your first steps into the world of being a statistician!
oOo