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A Short Course: Using Modeling and Statistics

I. Introduction to Modeling

This section includes introductory materials on modeling and the types of models: physical models, mathematical models and simulation models. The section also includes guidelines on creating quantitative models, and visualization methods of the gathered data, the relations within the model and the results. A tutorial on using the graphing tools of Excel is also included.

A. What is Modeling? (click here for a PowerPoint presentation)
B. Types of Models
C. Creating Quantitative Models
D. Visualization
E. Excel Graphing Tutorial

II. Statistics

The descriptive statistics are used to describe the basic features of the data in a model. In this section, a brief description of descriptive statistics is presented. More information is provided on mean, median, mode, standard deviation, which are the basic elements of descriptive statistics measuring central tendency in the data. The section also covers the linear regression and other line fitting methods to derive most appropriate model for the observed data and the model.

A. Descriptive Statistics
B. Measures of Central Tendency
C. Line and Curve Fitting
D. Linear Regression

III. Resources

This section includes a number of useful links on statistics and modeling examples.

A. Resources: Statistics
B. Resources: Modeling Tools/Examples

Please contact Al-Azad Iqbal or Steve Gordon for Questions and Comments - Updated 9/5/07