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Web Visualization: Confidence intervals for the mean



This web visualization shows the meaning of a confidence interval, calculating confidence intervals of the means of repeated samples.

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Prerequisite Knowledge

Students using this visualization should

  • be familiar with methods of summarizing data sets, such as mean and standard deviation;
  • identify and distinguish between a population and a sample, and between parameters and statistics.

Learning Objectives

  • Interpret a confidence interval and confidence level
  • Identify features that determine the width of a confidence interval

Suggested use(s) and tips

These apps are intended to be used in a number of ways

  • as a visual aid during lectures;
  • as an open-ended learning tool for active learning;
  • as a guided learning experience, using either the built-in tutorials, guided activity sheet (click here for Instructor Guide and Activity Sheet), or other instructor-supplied material.

About this Resource

    Funding: University of British Columbia
    Project Leader: Mike Whitlock
    Programmers: Boris Dalstein, Mike Whitlock & Zahraa Almasslawi
    Art: Derek Tan
    Translation: Rémi Matthey-Doret
    Testing: Melissa Lee, Gaitri Yapa & Bruce Dunham
    Thanks to: Darren Irwin, Dolph Schluter, Nancy Heckman, Kaylee Byers, Brandon Doty, Kim Gilbert, Sally Otto, Wilson Whitlock, Jeff Whitlock, Jeremy Draghi, Karon MacLean, Fred Cutler, Diana Whistler, Andrew Owen, Mike Marin, Leslie Burkholder, Eugenia Yu, Doug Bonn, Michael Scott, the UBC Physics Learning Group & the UBC Flex Stats initiative for numerous suggestions and improvements.

Tags

Topics:
• Confidence intervals - One sample mean t

What we learned

We learned a lot about this resource from trialling with students. Students often have trouble interpreting confidence intervals and hold some common misconception. For instance, many students believe, for the same data and parameter of interest, a 90% confidence interval is wider than a 95% confidence interval.
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Web Visualizations are also available in French and Spanish