xii • Building Basic Skills and Vocabulary are short-answer, true-or-false, and vocabulary exercises carefully written to nurture student understanding. • Using and Interpreting Concepts are skill or word problems that move from basic skill development to more challenging and interpretive problems. • Extending Concepts go beyond the material presented in the section. They tend to be more challenging and are not required as prerequisites for subsequent sections. Technology Answers Answers in the back of the book are found using calculations by hand and by tables. Answers found using technology (usually the TI-84 Plus) are also included when there are discrepancies due to rounding. Review and Assessment Chapter Summary Each chapter concludes with a Chapter Summary that answers the question What did you learn? The objectives listed are correlated to Examples in the section as well as to the Review Exercises. Chapter Review Exercises A set of Review Exercises follows each Chapter Summary. The order of the exercises follows the chapter organization. Answers to all odd-numbered exercises are given in the back of the book. Chapter Quizzes Each chapter has a Chapter Quiz. The answers to all quiz questions are provided in the back of the book. For additional help, see the step-by-step video solutions available in MyMathLab for School. Chapter Tests Each chapter has a Chapter Test. The questions are in random order. The answers to all test questions are provided in the Annotated Instructor’s Edition. Cumulative Review There is a Cumulative Review after Chapters 2, 5, 8, and 10. Exercises in the Cumulative Review are in random order and may incorporate multiple ideas. Answers to all odd-numbered exercises are given in the back of the book. Statistics in the Real World Uses and Abuses: Statistics in the Real World Each chapter discusses how statistical techniques should be used, while cautioning students about common abuses. The discussion includes ethics, where appropriate. Exercises help students apply their knowledge. Applet Activities Selected sections contain activities that encourage interactive investigation of concepts in the lesson with exercises that ask students to draw conclusions. The applets are available in MyMathLab for School and at www.pearson.com/math-stats-resources. Chapter Case Study Each chapter has a full-page Case Study featuring actual data from a real-world context and questions that illustrate the important concepts of the chapter. Real Statistics—Real Decisions: Putting it all together This feature encourages students to think critically and make informed decisions about real-world data. Exercises guide students from interpretation to drawing of conclusions. Chapter Technology Project Each chapter has a Technology project using Minitab, Excel, and the TI-84 Plus that gives students insight into how technology is used to handle large data sets or real-life questions. Continued Strong Pedagogy from the Seventh Edition Versatile Course Coverage The table of contents was developed to give instructors many options. For instance, the Extending Concepts exercises, applet activities, Real Statistics— Real Decisions, and Uses and Abuses provide sufficient content for the text to be used in a two-semester course. More commonly, I expect the text to be used in a three-credit semester course or a four-credit semester course that includes a lab component. In such cases, instructors will have to pare down the text’s 46 sections. Graphical Approach As with most introductory statistics texts, this text begins the descriptive statistics chapter (Chapter 2) with a discussion of different ways to display data graphically. A difference between this text and many others is that it continues to incorporate the graphical display of data throughout the text. For example, see the use of stem-and-leaf plots to display data on page 387. This emphasis on graphical displays is beneficial to all students, especially those utilizing visual learning strategies. Balanced Approach The text strikes a balance among computation, decision making, and conceptual understanding. I have provided many Examples, Exercises, and Try It Yourself exercises that go beyond mere computation. Variety of Real-Life Applications I have chosen real-life applications that are representative of the varied experiences of students taking introductory statistics courses. I want statistics to come alive and appear relevant to students so they understand the importance of and rationale for studying statistics. I wanted the applications to be authentic—but they also need to be accessible. See the Index of Applications on page xvi. Data Sets and Source Lines The data sets in the book were chosen for interest, variety, and their ability to illustrate concepts. Most of the 250-plus data sets contain real data with source lines. The remaining data sets contain simulated data that are representative of real-life situations. All data sets containing 20 or more entries are available in a variety of formats in MyMathLab for School or at www.pearson.com/math-stats-resources. In the exercise sets, the data sets that are available electronically are indicated by the icon . Flexible Technology Although most formulas in the book are illustrated with “hand” calculations, I assume that most students have access to some form of technology, such as Minitab, Excel, StatCrunch, or the TI-84 Plus. Because technology varies widely, the text is flexible. It can be used in courses with no more technology than a scientific calculator—or it can be used in courses that require sophisticated technology tools. Whatever your use of technology, I am sure you agree with me that the goal of the course is not computation. Rather, it is to help students gain an understanding of the basic concepts and uses of statistics. Prerequisites Algebraic manipulations are kept to a minimum—often I display informal versions of formulas using words in place of or in addition to variables. Choice of Tables My experience has shown that students find a cumulative distribution function (CDF) table easier to use than a “0-to-z” table. Using the CDF table to find the area under the standard normal curve is a topic of Section 5.1 on
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