Statistics in every day life

So, funny story. 

I'm taking a short session statistics class this summer.  Twice a week for 3 HOURS (Yay, only 3 more classes left until I'm done!!!!!) 

 

Earlier this month I went to my future sis-in-law's high school graduation.  The venue for the graduation was packed.  I think it was the senior class president who have a speech and someone he related the high school experience to a Cafe Rio taco (yeah...I dunno....but let's just say we were all craving Cafe Rio after that!)  Then they began the reading of the student's names and presentation of their diplomas.  Being a formal setting they announced to please refrain from cheering or clapping as the noise would make it so name's being called wouldn't be heard.  Of course, there were those who did as they pleased and made rude disruptions.  (Ugh...that BUUUUGS me!)

 

Anyway, as we sat there (somewhat bored) we listened to the cool organ music being played (songs from Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Sound of Music, etc) as a name was called, the student walked across the stage, was handed a diploma, shook hands with the principal, had their photo taken {snap, snap} and proceeded to exit.   Moments later B leaned in and shared his observation with me.

 

Some kids had honor cords and ribbons.  Others did not.  He observed that when the kids with honor codes were called up, it was quiet.  When the kids that didn't have any honor codes there'd be a huge cheer from somewhere in the crowd.  Of course there were exceptions.  Some of the honor students got cheers, and some of the non-honor students supporters remained quiet (therefore there were some outliers). So B wondered whether there was a correlation between the cheers and whether the kids had cords or not. 

 

We continued watching and it made things much more entertaining to see how accurate his predictions were!  We thought that some possible explanations might be that the non-honor kids had family/supporters with a disregard for rules or lack of respect (i.e. cheering when asked not to) and that was passed down to the students, which translated into how serious they were about their studies.  As for the honor students where they got cheers, maybe their family/supporters thought they were above the rules or something since they got all these honors and awards, and they justified being able to cheer because they were that much better.  Maybe there were just lots of other lurking variables....

 

Well, come to find out when we talked to B's sister, nearly all the non-honor kids were the "Three to Sixers" (the kids that went to school after hours because of problems).

 

Anyway, it was just kinda funny.  And there ya go, statistics in everyday life.

:)