Material Detail

Probability distributions, p-values, and percentiles are fundamental topics taught to introductory statistics students. Often, students are presented these topics with static images in textbooks, but frequently do not have access to a dynamic and interactive tool they can use for exploration. For example, in the case of p-values, introductory students are frequently shown how to use tables to obtain a range of possible p-values associated with their test statistic along with a guiding image, but this is often difficult for students to understand. The goal of this application is to provide the student with an intuitive, simple, and comprehensive visualization of the three aforementioned topics. At the moment, many but not all continuous distributions (Beta, Cauchy, Chi-Squared, Exponential, F, Gamma, Logistic, Log Normal, Normal, Student’s t, Uniform, and Weibull) are available in the application. Support for discrete may be added in the future.

When the app first renders, the user is shown by default the standard normal distribution. The student may vary the both the distribution and parameters corresponding to the distribution of their choice from the options at the top under "Distribution." This enables the student to see how the shape of their selected distribution changes as these values change. For students that are interested in visualizing probabilities and percentiles, the probability viewer app easily allows the student to select between two types of inputs. The student can also select between different shaded tail visualizations for the inputted percentiles or probabilities. Whether the student chooses to input a percentile or probability, the app will automatically calculate the value that the student did not input, corresponding to the one was. After inputting all required values, a graph appears with the appropriate distribution, the percentile and probability pairs, and the appropriate shading.

This will delete the comment from the database. This operation is not reversible. Are you sure you want to do it?

Thank you for reporting a broken "Go to Material" link in MERLOT to help us maintain a collection of valuable learning materials.

If you feel this material is inappropriate for the MERLOT Collection, please click SEND REPORT, and the MERLOT Team will investigate. Thank you!

You are being taken to the material on another site. This will open a new window.

Do not show me this again