Why You Should Always Graph Your Data First (The Dinosaur Proof)

Same mean. Same standard deviation. Completely different data.

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Summary statistics only tell part of the story. The Datasaurus Dozen is a famous dataset that proves it — multiple groups of data can share identical means, standard deviations, and R squared values while looking completely different when graphed. One of them is a dinosaur. Here's what it teaches students about data visualization and why you should always plot your data first.

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 Interested in a bit more?

Find the Datasaurus Dozen Activity here.

Article on Same Stats, Different Graphs and history of Anscombe’s Quartet.

Check out Statistics Snippets and more on the DC blog.

Subscribe to the Statistics Snippets playlist on Youtube. 

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