1. Analyzing Data
Taking a closer look

2. 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
Thanks to David Kalpin from Marblehead High School who gave us this idea.
What kind of function is this?
Linear?

3. What kind of function is this?
Quadratic?

4. What kind of function is this?
Cubic?

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

6. 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 …

7. Getting Trendy
The ups and downs

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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. Variability vs. Shifting from the mean
IPCC