Overview of Tinkerplots

1. Overview of Tinkerplots by Carryn Bellomo UNLV Math Department

2. What Tinkerplots Does • Helps you see trends and patterns in data • Helps you make graphs and reports to present findings • There are sample data sets, or you can enter your own data (collected in class or on the internet)

3. “Cat” Example – What You See Open Tinkerplots with cat data • Top left you have data cards, 1 card for each data point • Attributes are assigned to each data point, they can be continuous or discrete • By default they are randomly arranged on the page

4. Explanation of Some Buttons • Stack arranges them in a line • Order arranges them numerically or by category • Label puts their name next to the icon • The “Mix up button” randomly places the icons on the screen Let’s place their name next to the icon and arrange the cats by weight

5. Grouping Data Let’s make a bar graph of the cats with their body length • With the attribute for body lenght selected, pull on an icon separates the data into groups • Continue to pull on them until they are fully separated • Then stack them, and change the icon if you like to “fused rectangular”

6. Body Length There seem to be two clusters of cats regarding body length. Perhaps this is related to age or gender? • Click on the attribute for age. Does there seem to be a relationship? • Click on the attribute for gender. Does there seem to be a relationship? • Separate the males/females by dragging one of the icons up • Click on the button to see the mean, and the button for a reference line

7. Body Length vs. Weight Perhaps body length is related to weight? • Randomize the data • Drag the attribute for body length to the vertical axis • Fully separate the data • Drag the attribute for weight to the horizontal axis • Separate into groups, stack, display the average • Is there a trend? What about separating the data fully?

8. Using Your Own Data Collected from the Class

9. Using Your Own Data Let’s look at the relationship between commute time and job satisfaction • Tinkerplots allows you to add your own set of data cards • Rate your overall satisfaction with your job, 1 = not satisfied to 10 = very satisfied • Estimate your commute time to and from work (total) in minutes

10. Entering Data Manually • Open tinkerplots • Choose “new” from the file menu • Click and drag a table (or cards) into the screen • Enter columns: name, commute time and job satisfaction • Enter data for each person

11. Evaluate Commuting Data • Are people with long commute times less satisfied with their jobs than people who have shorter commute times? • Are people with short commute times more satisfied with their jobs than people who travel further? • What other attributes could we collect to help with this study?

12. Importing Data from a Spreadsheet

13. Importing Data from a Spreadsheet Let’s look at data collected by the Dept of Air Quality Management in Clark County for Ozone Levels, Carbon Monoxide and Wind Speed • Open tinkerplots and click on “new” • Copy your data from any spreadsheet • Drag out a set of data cards • Go to “edit” and “paste cases” • Modify the attribute names and units

14. Analyzing Air Quality • Is there a relationship between… • Ozone levels and season? • wind speed and season? • wind speed and Ozone levels? • wind speed and Carbon Monoxide levels? • Carbon Monoxide and Ozone levels?

15. Let’s Play with Tinkerplots!

16. Your Turn to Practice • Open Tinkerplot folder • Open any dataset, like “backpacks.tp” • Analyze the data to answer the following questions… • Do students in higher grades tend to carry heavier backpacks? • Doctors recommend that students should carry backpacks that weigh no more than 15% of their body weight. What percentage of these students are carrying more than the recommended weight?