Describing and Analyzing Graphs
An important part of data analysis is understanding the information contained within a graphical representation of data. To accomplish this, students must be given guidelines for describing and analyzing data presented graphically.
- Asking students to view and describe graphs in their own words helps them better understand the information conveyed by a graph. Learn more here
- The basics of plotting points, labeling axes with appropriate scales, titles, and units can be difficult for some introductory-level students.
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- Frequency plots or histograms are a very useful visualization tool for univariate data. There are many resources available to help your students learn more about histograms.
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- The linear trend or slope of a graph is often a useful value to estimate from a series of data.
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- The Period, frequency, and amplitude are basic parameters that students can estimate from graphs of periodic data.
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- The doubling time for exponential growth or the residence time for exponential decay are often worth exploring in introductory geoscience and bioscience courses courses.
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- Contour Plots are extremely common throughout the geosciences. Contour plots are very useful for visualizing and interpreting large data collected on a two-dimensional grid network. Learn more here
- Two dimensional times series are best visualized by Hovmoller plots in which the abscissa (x-axis) is the time and the ordinate (y-axis) is some spatial variable like latitude, height, or depth, and the measured quantity identified by isopleths or color contours. Learn more here
- Fourier transforms of time series or spatial data are used throughout the sciences. Consider providing your introductory-level students with some familiarity of this essential analysis tool.
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