In the Data Views section, you will usually see preliminary statistical analyses and views of data that provide a beginning to the story. Sometimes a full analysis is provided, but more commonly the section presents only one or two aspects of a complex project to help you reach your own statistical conclusion.
In this first project, the following site provides a reasoned explanation of the data on the Titanic. Explore this site and consider the reasoning used there. The first section discusses the question of whether there were differences in survival figures depending on class, age, and sex. At the end of the article you will find tables showing the actual number and percentages of those lost and saved.
The question is: 'What do you think?'
Were women and children really saved first? Were the first class passengers saved unfairly?
You will see that different ways of presenting the numbers can lead you to different conclusions. The art of statistics gives you the power to find the correct way of looking at the numbers. In a later section you will have a chance to explore this data again, using statistical techniques you learn in class.