Notes about this page

How this meets G. Creating assignments designed to encourage students to do their best work.

Large assignments broken into multiple steps over time - there is outline text box that prompts students to answer specific questions of the Lab 1 Activity (which are part of a larger assignment)
Lab 1 assignment is framed in an authentic context

Quick Navigation

Creating and Interpreting Histograms
Creating and Interpreting Pie Charts and Bar Charts

The Activity consists of the following subparts:

Height and Weight Data
Contaminated Lakes

There are multiple ways to graph data in jmp. In this exercise, we will use the Graph Builder option.

Creating and Interpreting Histograms

Height and Weight Data

Step 1

Download and open the men's and women's height and weight data JMP file.

Step 2

Go to the Graph on the toolbar menu, then select Graph Builder.

Step 3

Drag and drop "Height" into drop zone on x-axis. You will notice a random scatter of points. From here you can choose how you want jmp to graph your data.

Step 4

Select the Histogram icon from the graph element or ribbon at the top

By default, you will see a histogram of heights without those splitting them into male and female. JMP will also arbitrarily choose an interval size.

Notice this graph is showing you the frequencies all all heights, regardless of gender. If you would like to break up height frequency by gender then we need to add gender to our graph.

Step 5

Select "gender," drag and drop it in the middle of the graph. This will tell the JMP program to generate one graph with two panels, one for men and the other for women.

Step 6

When you are finished you can select Done. This will exit the Graph Builder program and produce your graph.

Step 7

To copy your graph, select the Selection icon, as before, and click anywhere in the Graph Builder Header.

You now have enough information to answer questions 6 and 7 in the Lab 1 Assignment Sheet.

Step 8

Repeat by making a histogram for "Weight," and split it by sex/gender

Step 9

Copy and paste both histograms into your lab assignment as before.

You now have enough information to answer questions 8-10 in the Lab 1 Assignment Sheet.

You can also use JMP to create both graphical summaries. This is under the Distribution option under Analyze.

Select Analyze in your JMP toolbox: Analyze > Distribution
Drag "Height" and "Gender" into y-columns
Drag "Gender" to the box labeled By.
Alternatively, you can highlight your column of interest and select the Y, Columns button or the By button. Both methods work.

You should see the following large table.

The Distribution table gives you both histograms and box plots (another graphical tool for continuous variables that we will discuss at a later time.) In addition, they give you a detailed Quantiles list and Summary Statistics.

The red triangles next to the header titles are for additional options. Under Summary Statistics, select the red triangle to Customize the Summary Statistics. Select this option and select the following summary stats: Means, Medians, Modes, Ranges (including the Maximum, Minimum and the Difference), Variances and Standard Deviations.

As you realize there are multiple ways in JMP to get graphs and summary statistics, some more detailed than others. I recommend getting familiar with them all as they each serve their own purpose.

Troubleshooting: Make sure you have not made any changes to the original data as the first column. Gender needs to be nominal - i.e a text column as it codes gender as "m" or "f".

Creating and Interpreting Pie Charts and Bar Charts

Contaminated Lakes

Largemouth bass was studied in 53 different Florida lakes to examine the factors that influence the level of mercury contamination. Water samples were collected from the surface of the middle of each lake in August 1990 and then again in March 1991. The pH level, the amount of chlorophyll, calcium, and alkalinity were measured in each sample. The average of the August and March values were used in the analysis. Next, a sample of fish was taken from each lake with sample sizes ranging from 4 to 44 fish. The age of each fish and mercury concentration in the muscle tissue was measured. (Note: Since fish absorb mercury over time, older fish will tend to have higher concentrations). Thus, to make a fair comparison of the fish in different lakes, the investigators used a regression estimate of the expected mercury concentration in a three-year-old fish as the standardized value for each lake. Finally, in 10 of the 53 lakes, the age of the individual fish could not be determined and the average mercury concentration of the sampled fish was used instead of the standardized value.

Step 1

Open the Lake-Mercury JMP file

Follow the instructions below to create a Pie chart using the relative levels of Alkalinity only for the first 10 Lakes listed in the dataset. Notice the large deviation in Alkalinity levels between lakes (e.g., compare lakes Apopka and Annie).

Step 2

Select only the first 10 lakes: highlight the first 10 lakes and columns as follows: select row 10, press the shift key and select row 10. This will highlight the first to rows

Step 3

Select Tables in the toolbar menu, then Selected Rows > OK.

A new dataset table will open with your subset of data.

Step 4

Create a pie chart of these for lake alkalinity using Graph Builder:

Select Graph > Graph Builder
Drag and drop your categorical Lake on x-axis
Drag and drop alkalinity on y-axis
Select the Pie in the ribbon across the top
Select Summary Statistics and % of Total.
Select Label and Label by Percent of Total Values.

Step 5

When you are done you can select Done and your final pie chart will appear.

To convert this data into a bar chart open Graph Builder again.

Select Graph > Graph Builder
Drag and drop your categorical Lake on x-axis
Drag and drop alkalinity on y-axis
Select the Bar Chart in the ribbon across the top

To place the bars in order of descending alkalinity, place your arrow near the x-axis, right-click, select Order By, select "Alkalinity, ascending."

Step 6

Repeat the Pie Chart for one other variable of your choosing.

You now have enough information to answer questions 11-14 in the Lab 1 Assignment Sheet.