Using U.S. Energy Data to Enhance the Teaching of Introductory Statistics

• Activity Number: 247
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, August 2, 2010 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistical Education
• Author(s): Carol Joyce Blumberg*+
• Companies: U.S. Energy Information Administration
• Keywords: Correlation ; Statistics Education ; Exploratory Data Analysis ; Energy ; Introductory Statistics ; Datasets

Abstract

Over the last 30 years the interest of college students in energy, especially in the areas of renewable energy sources and environmental effects, has continued to increase. The purpose of this paper is to showcase some interesting, rich datasets related to energy that are easy for both the students and instructors to understand and analyze. Datasets at the micro- and macro-level will be discussed. For each dataset the following will be presented: variables of high interest, unique features, and some analyses that lead to useful results and/or teach the students important statistical reasoning and interpretation lessons. All datasets used can be downloaded easily from the U.S. Energy Information Administration website at www.eia.doe.gov.