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  • 1.  Need help explaining the Normal distribution and Central Limit theorem to non-stats people

    Posted 02-27-2018 05:28
    Hello everyone,

    I am teaching a class where I need to talk about the normal distribution to older adults/non-statistical people.   Currently, I am having trouble explain the basic concept.  I wanted ask everyone if there are some free resources available that I can use to help me better explain it so that students will understand.

    Many thanks,

    Mike


  • 2.  RE: Need help explaining the Normal distribution and Central Limit theorem to non-stats people

    Posted 02-28-2018 10:06
    I teach basic stats to adult nurses, and these are my favorites:


    Sampling distributions and the CLT:  http://onlinestatbook.com/stat_sim/sampling_dist/

    Have fun!

    Janet

    Janet Rothers, PhD
    Clinical Assistant Professor
    College of Nursing
    University of Arizona
    rothers@email.arizona.edu



    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Need help explaining the Normal distribution and Central Limit theorem to non-stats people

    Posted 02-28-2018 10:44
    I am actually teaching this to my undergrads this week. I am going to use those individual packets of skittles to help. Once going for binomial with a proportion that are red & green compared to the other 3 colors. The other demonstration is to use the mean or total number of a particular color. I will collect the numbers from my whole class (~38 students) and then show how the CLT works.

    Another resource I have found is this 10 minute video Central limit theorem by Khan Academy.

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    Jonathan Clapp
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Need help explaining the Normal distribution and Central Limit theorem to non-stats people

    Posted 03-01-2018 03:50
    You may try to use a Galton board: The Normal Curve and Galton's Board
    Ptrow remove preview
    The Normal Curve and Galton's Board
    The Normal Curve and Galton's Board by Paul Trow
    View this on Ptrow >
    .
    Best regards,
    cg

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    Christian Graf
    Dipl.-Math.
    Qualitaetssicherung & Statistik

    "To call in the statistician after the experiment is done may be no more than asking him to perform a post-mortem examination: he may be able to say what the experiment died of."

    Ronald Fisher in 'Presidential Address by Professor R. A. Fisher, Sc.D., F.R.S. Sankhyā: The Indian Journal of Statistics (1933-1960), Vol. 4, No. 1 (1938), pp. 14-17'
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Need help explaining the Normal distribution and Central Limit theorem to non-stats people

    Posted 03-01-2018 06:41
    How about via the average number of bunny rabbits in a forest or the average wing-span of dragons (whose population distribution is known to be bimodal). Video

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    Albert Y. Kim
    Amherst College
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Need help explaining the Normal distribution and Central Limit theorem to non-stats people

    Posted 03-04-2018 19:51
    We typically start out with uniform discrete examples like coins and dice so then moving on to continuous distributions carries that over. I suspect most people think measurements are uniformly distributed so introducing the idea of 'modal' is a good start.  I like the idea of a showing a bimodal as well as a skewed modal distribution. Also stem and leaf diagrams, starting out by hand, give a sense of distributions. From there the special properties of the normal distribution can be appreciated.

    SIGNIFICANCE magazine had an article called 'The Shock of the Mean' in the DEC2017 issue that talks about the history of averaging numbers and its connection to normal theory.  We shouldn't take our efforts to summarize data for granted. 


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    Georgette Asherman
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    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Need help explaining the Normal distribution and Central Limit theorem to non-stats people

    Posted 03-05-2018 14:11
    I find the videos and resources in the learner.org series "Against All Odds" to be helpful. - https://www.learner.org/courses/againstallodds/unitpages/index.html

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    Karen Duff

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    Original Message


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