WWW SAMPLER - Data, Data, and More Data

A SAMPLER OF WWW RESOURCES FOR TEACHING STATISTICS

Section 7- Data, Data, and More Data

Need an example of a regression which is drastically altered by an influential outlier? Want to find some data to illustrate descriptive statistics which will appeal to students interested in environmental issues? Looking for a multivariate dataset to serve as the basis for next week's midterm exam? Have a student who loves horse racing and wants to use data from past runnings of the Kentucky Derby for her project? The Web is the place to find loads of data sources, often in downloadable formats.

Dataset Archives

DASL The Dataset and Story Library - a collection of datasets and related documentation (stories) which may be searched by data subjects or by statistical techniques.
Journal of Statistics Education Data Archive Datasets contributed by statistics teachers. Raw data are in a .dat file with explanations a .doc file. Many of these datasets are tied to longer JSE articles discussing their use in statistics classes.
Statlib Dataset Archive One of the original (and still best) sources for archived data.
CHANCE Project Datasets Data from recent media coverage of current events. Only a few datasets here, but many excellent references to teaching applications of statistics in the news can be found at the main CHANCE page.
Datasets in Excel, NCSS, or tab-delimited ASCII, with suggestions for appropriate statistical topics - part of an excellent set of resources for Exploring Data produced by Rex Boggs.

Pages of Links to Datasites

Dr. B's Wide World of Web Data. An extensive collection of data sources maintained by John Behrens (Dr. B) at Arizona State.
Sports Statistics on the Web Links to websites with loads of sports data, assembled by Jim Box for the ASA's Section on Statistics in Sports. Check here also for links to lots of sports websites.
Fishing for Data Using the Net compiled by Stephen Turner and Leon Bourn at Babson College.
Datasurfing A page I maintain for getting students started on finding data on the Web.
Sports Data Page Links to current and archived data related to various sports.

Government & Official Agencies Data

There's tons of data produced by various govenment departments, although it often takes a bit of digging to find it.

FEDSTATS - Billed as the "One-Stop Shopping" source for governement data with links to more than 70 federal agencies - be sure to check it's "A to Z" list.
U.S. Census Bureau - includes the Statistical Abstract of the United States, a nice map interface to sample data from counties, and long list of data subjects. The state rankings are a popular source for student projects.
The World Factbook - produced by the CIA. Lots of statistics for each country in the world. Similar information could be found in a good almanac, but students seem to like browsing for it on the Web.
Bureau of Labor Statistics - lots of economic data -- an especially good source for time series data.
State Data Centers - a list maintained at the Census Bureau to give links to various official data sources in each state.
International Statistical Agencies - a similar Census Bureau list with links to official statistics branches in most countries.

Data About the Web

Want to measure some feature of Web pages? You'll need a way to randomly sample pages...

Yahoo's Random Link - click this link to go to a random page in Yahoo's extensive inventory.
URouLette - another random link generator

Or to check how a sample of colleges and universities present themselves via the web...

American Colleges and Universities - a list of links maintained by Mike Conlon at the Univ. of Florida.

Generating simulated data

Expersim Project - online simulation of data from several scenarios with an empahsis on experimental design. Produced by a group at the Univ. of Colarado at Boulder, based on software developed at the Univ. of Michigan.
StatVillage - sample from the population of this online town, with demographics generated from real Canadian census data -brought to you by Carl Schwarz at Simon Fraser University..

Example: What data do STUDENTS choose from the web?

Move on to Section 8: Miscellaneous Links

Back to main outline of paper.