MA12810 - COMPUTER PACKAGES FOR ANALYSING AND PRESENTING DATA

Module Identifier

MA12810

Module Title

COMPUTER PACKAGES FOR ANALYSING AND PRESENTING DATA

Academic Year

2003/2004

Co-ordinator

Mr Alan Jones

Semester

Semester 2

Other staff

Dr John A Lane, Mr Alan Jones

Pre-Requisite

C grade or better in GCSE Mathematics (or equivalent).

Course delivery

Practical

11 x 2 hours practicals.

Lecture

11 x 1 hour lectures

Assessment

Assessment Type	Assessment Length/Details	Proportion
Semester Assessment	Coursework. Practical assignments (equal weight to each package).	100%
Supplementary Assessment	2 Hours Practical Examination	100%

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:

set up (or modify) a spreadsheet to do various calculations; produce summaries and charts from the figures involved;
explore a data set and use simple methods to analyse and present the information it contains using the statistics package;
use the graphics package to produce and manipulate maps and graphs from data.

Brief description

Throughout, the emphasis is on the use of the computer system as a practical tool to facilitate the presentation and analyses of data gained, perhaps, by experiment, survey or field-work. Through familiarity with a variety of packages and their online help systems, students will be enabled to come to terms with new packages more easily and become aware of their capabilities.

Aims

This module provides an introduction to three very different packages: a microcomputer spreadsheet package, a statistics package and a mainframe graphics suite. The packages offer contrasting user interfaces. The philosophy of the course will be to provide students with tools that they can use elsewhere in their studies.

Content

1. SPREADSHEET: Overview of spreadsheets; entering and formatting information; formulae and functions; copying cell contents; manipulating a (large) spreadsheet; simple macros; error tracking.
2. STATISTICS PACKAGE: Overview of the package; use of the help facility; input, manipulation and correction of data; a selection of applications from exploratory data analysis, linear regression and testing hypotheses; incorporating output into Word documents.
3. GRAPHICS SYSTEM: Introduction to the system; data input and operations; creating and editing graphs and maps; types of map; interpolation; changing the viewpoint; incorporating maps into Word documents.

Reading Lists

Books
** Recommended Text
Greg Harvey (1994) Excel for Dummies 2nd. IDG Books 1568840500
Barbara Ryan, Brian L. Joiner (2001) Minitab Handbook 4th. Duxbury 0534370934

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 4