Monthly Video: Hypothesis Testing (small sample - t test)

A requirement is the use of statistics to help us either accept or reject a hypothesis (A hypothesis is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. For a hypothesis to be a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it. Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothesis).

The accepting or rejecting of a Null Hypothesis, often involves a T Test (where the sample is less than 30) or a Z Test (where the sample is greater than 30).

The following video walks through an illustration of what this means and how to complete a T Test. Although the software application often calculates the actual number, it is really useful for us to understand how it is calculated to help our interpretation. The following video is from the Khan Academy (https://www.khanacademy.org/).


If you have any questions, please email learningservices@ucs.ac.uk

Student Request: Converting a fraction into a decimal

In response to a session I ran the other day, I thought the following Khan Academy video would be really useful for those who are looking at refreshing on how to convert a fraction into a decimal. It is also really useful as it explains how to convert a decimal into a fraction :-)

If you have any questions around Maths Support, please email learningservices@ucs.ac.uk

Thanks - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Ybc7289-bw.jpg

Monthly video: Interpreting p values

Currently, one of the most frequent requests we receive is around, "what is a p value? what does it mean?".

The following videos have been selected to answer the following questions; 

1. what is a p-value?
2. when and where are thy used?
3. what do they show?

The videos use lots of terminology, a key one to remember, is "Null hypothesis, refers to a general statement or default position that there is no relationship between two measured phenomena." If we reject the Null hypothesis, (indicated by a low p-value) we can accept the alternate hypothesis"

Video 1:


Video 2: Looks at it from the perspective of the hypothesis


More YouTube explanations are available from: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=interpreting+p+values 

If you have any questions, please email learningservices@ucs.ac.uk

If you are using Google Sheets, there is a template to allow you to calculate a Z and T Test, which produces the p values. For more information, see

• https://drive.google.com/previewtemplate?id=0As3tAuweYU9QcHlVM3hrY2tocEkzUjZwcDFmd2xTRXc&mode=public 

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Thanks - Image Source - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/00/P-value_Graph.png

Student request: Find the equation of a line with a certain gradient which passes through a specific point

We've had a few requests from students around how to find the equation of a line which passes through a specific point, and has a certain slope (gradient), within the Faculty of Health and Science, Dept of Science and Technology.

For example, their practical problems (Basic Algebra 4), sheet includes 9 questions. The following video walks through one method which is nice and straight forward.

If you've been struggling with your approach, perhaps the following will help. The equation you need to provide is slope-intercept equation which is calculated at the end of the video.



If you have any questions, please contact Learning Services (learningservices@ucs.ac.uk)

Student request: Help solving simultaneous equations

We've had a few requests from students around how to solve simultaneous numbers, within the Faculty of Health and Science, Dept of Science and Technology.

For example, their practical problems (Basic Algebra 3), sheet includes 30 questions. The following video walks through one method which is nice and straight forward. If you've been struggling with your approach, perhaps the following will help.

If you have any questions, please contact Learning Services (learningservices@ucs.ac.uk)

Monthly Video Series: Descriptive Statistics

As part of the dissemination and awareness process we'll be sharing videos from external sources.
The following video is from the Khan Academy, and walks through how to calculate a number of descriptive statistics; mean, mode, median.

These measure averages and are regularly used as the starting point in understanding the dataset.



As the data set becomes larger, and more complex calculating by hand becomes more problematic (and prone to errors). Therefore, you can calculate the descriptive statistics using a spreadsheet. The following (silent) video walks through how to calculate a number of different descriptive statistics using Google Spreadsheets.


If you have any questions, please contact Learning Services (learningservices@ucs.ac.uk)

Book Review: Practical Statistics for Nursing and Health Care

As part of our support to course teams I've been working with Karen Lewis to explore what textbooks are available in the Library which map to the topics she'll be covering in her sessions. The intention is to discipline specific texts to help students connect with the topic, as opposed to general statistics books which might seem a little abstract. A textbook which is really good for Nursing and Health Care is;

Practical statistics for nursing and health care (stsk 519.502461 FOW)

This maps to her curriculum very neatly. For instance;

• Processing data (Scales of measurement, nominal, ordinal, interval) is in Chapter 3
• Measuring the Average (mean, mode, median) is Chapter 7
• Measuring variability (range, standard deviation, alternatives and interpretations) is Chapter 8
• Measuring Correlations (meaning, strength, significance and calculation) is Chapter 13

Learning Services Resources for Maths Support

We'd just like to make you aware we have a large number of Maths support books which are available in the Library. These have been purchased to support the needs from across the various course teams, and account for difference starting points.

The book collection has been located with other academic skills resources, and are based in the PC Suite, near L107.

We'd encourage you to use these books as part of your self directed support. So once your lecturers have introduced and applied the maths, please pop across to the Library to access these resources.

Monthly Video Series: Correlation

As part of the dissemination and awareness process we'll be sharing videos from external sources. To start the process I've selected the Statistics 101 Course on YouTube, by Brandon Foltz (https://www.youtube.com/user/BCFoltz/videos). He regularly publishes videos around statistical techniques. I'll admit, these are more directed towards the final year / dissertation students.

The following video explores the concept of correlation. Given it is part of a series, the start makes reference to the previous video. Therefore, I'd suggest, sit back, relax and give it time.



Correlation is a very useful statistical test for exploring two data sets which have no causal relationship. Excel (and Google Spreadsheet) includes an inbuilt function for calculating correlation coefficient. The following video outlines how this is done.