CREATING A DATA SET

Response 1:

Instructions:

Complete each of the following steps using the quantitative variable your peer chose:

1. Identify the variable.

2. Explain if this variable is continuous or discrete. Justify your reasoning.

3. Choose another variable you may be interested in adding to this data that is the opposite type of variable (for example, if your peer’s choice was continuous, then choose a discrete variable or vice versa). Explain why this variable meets that criteria.

WEEK 1 DISCUSSION - J. TURNER

     I was using the blank Excel spreadsheet to create my assignment.  I downloaded the data set, I opened it in Excel. I then highlighted the top row or column titles, clicked edit, and copy. I then went to my blank spreadsheet and pasted the data. (TIP- Do not copy and paste the material if it appears in a Word document. Make sure it opens in Excel and copy and paste from there.) 

     Once I had copied and pasted the titles to the top row of my blank Excel document, I highlighted all the data down to row 61 (the number I was assigned.) onto my blank spreadsheet. I created titles for two more columns. To Do this, I clicked in one of the boxes where a label was already present to see the font and font size and if it was in bold. I discovered it was Arial, size 12, with bold enhancement. I went to the end of the columns and at the first blank column, I placed my cursor and highlighted two columns.  I went to the home button, found the font options, and changed them to what I needed, Arial, 12, bold. Returning to my highlighted section, I typed in BMI SMOKERS and BMI-NONSMOKERS. 

     To finish the assignment, I used the highlight function once again. I found the smoker column (I determined that 1 designated a smoker, and 0 designated a non-smoker.) Returning to the BMI column, I first highlighted the BMI from each “1” or smoker and copied and pasted that into my new BMI SMOKER column. Remembering my place was simple because Excel kept my place by having a dotted green line around the last item I highlighted to transfer. I repeated these actions with the “0” NON-SMOKERS. I completed the assignment by saving it as “STData_J_Turner.” Remember to use your initial and last name when you save your project to your computer. 

      I would describe the regional geographic data as qualitative and nominal because defining a region would only make sense quantitatively if you were asking about the population of that region. Here, we are only qualifying WHAT region rather than HOW MANY are in the region. It is nominal because we can name the area. Defining the region as qualitative allows us to sort it categorically.  

      Heart rate would be considered a quantitative, continuous variable. It is quantitative because I can measure it with numbers. It is also a continuous variable, because the numerical possibilities are endless. 

     I, Janene Turner, verify that I did, indeed, install the Data Analysis Tool Pak on my personal laptop.