Analyzing Data Taking a closer look

What kind of function is this? These images all were generated using this function (((x-10)(x+4)(x^2-10))*(.01)) +3 on the website http://www.algebrahelp.com/calculators/function/graphing Thanks to David Kalpin from Marblehead High School who gave us this idea. What kind of function is this? Linear?

What kind of function is this? Quadratic?

What kind of function is this? Cubic?

What kind of function is this? The answer is .. Quartic

A critical eye observes more than a passive eye … In order to analyze data (or anything!) properly you can’t just look at one piece of the information You need to take a step back and look at the whole picture to gain a better understanding of what’s happening Wikimedia | Public Domain Wikimedia | Public Domain Wikimedia | Creative Commons A critical eye observes more than a passive eye …

Getting Trendy The ups and downs

Types of Trends Linear Exponential Wikipedia | Public Domain Wikipedia | Creative Commons

Types of Trends Cyclic Oscillation This are the types of trends you will see in climate data but there are also a variety of other trends i.e. log, power, polynomial, s-shaped and so on Wikipedia | Public Domain Wikipedia | Creative Commons

Handout out “How Has Earth’s Temperature Changed Handout out “How Has Earth’s Temperature Changed?” have students complete then discuss. Looking at data with a critical eye This graph is a little overwhelming but it encompasses a lot of topics that are needed to examine data critically: Trends Trend lines Double y axis graph Baselines Variability from mean Timescales start/end of dataset length of trendline

Comparing Data Baseline: Anomaly: variations from the mean displayed graphically Anomaly: variations from the mean displayed pictorially In the IPCC graph the difference from global temperature based on the 1961 – 1990 average is called a baseline. A baseline is used as a point of reference to compare all of the data to. This displays variability from the mean GRAPHICALLY. If data points fall on the zero line there is no variation from the 30 year mean. Below (Above) the baseline the temperatures are cooler (warmer) than the mean.   Keep in mind where the zero line is because the scale on either side of it is not even – it’s skewed. FYI: In climate change studies a past 30 year average is used. A lot of times in the fields of meteorology/climatology/oceanography variations from the mean are displayed pictorially using a color scale and this is called an anomaly. In this image the red (blue) indicates warmer (colder) temperatures compared to the 1971 – 2000 average. If there is no variation from this 30 year mean the color white is used. NOAA

Variability vs. Shifting from the mean IPCC