Who will win?

Broncos vs. Steelers

Ronald Parks1 to 1 ConnectionsHomework Assignment

Introduction

• The Denver Broncos defeated the two-time defending Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots to take on the Pittsburg Steelers in the 2006 AFC Championship Game. This activity will compare the passing games of the Broncos and Steelers, based on the regular game statistics for the 2005-2006 season.

• Can we use this information to predict the outcome of the game?• How can we analyze this information to best predict the outcome of

the game?• What other information would help you in making your choice as

who will win the game?

Before the Activity

• The table found on the following page shows the yards gained from passing for the regular season games during the 2005-2006 NFL season for the two teams.

• Enter this data into two list in your calculators or Microsoft Office Excel.

• What statistical measuring tools will you use to help make your decision?

Yards Gained from Passing

• Denver Pittsburg• 251 218• 233 254• 137 216• 118 225

92 154• 253 93

– 194 177– 309 65– 205 150– 149 133– 257 386– 222 173– 259 226– 259 ` 149– 84

Activity

• Look over the numbers and speculate about whether either team has a better passing game.

• Calculate the mean, medium, mode, maximum, minimum.

• We will do a box-and-whisker plot and look at the “outlier” from the plots.

Extension

• Discuss how “outliers” are determined and how they affect the mean and medium of the data.

• Discuss how picking one statistical tool gives us part of the picture but often is not enough to predict.

• What other information would you like to know?• How could use this lesson to help you in what

you are interested is?