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ISCAM: Investigating Statistical Concepts, Applications, and Methods

Beth L. Chance, Allan J. Rossman

Preface Using Technology with This Book

This interactive textbook provides multiple ways to work with data and statistical software:
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Interactive Applets.

Many investigations in this book include interactive applets created with JavaScript. These applets allow you to explore statistical concepts dynamically within the context of the investigation. These applets are designed to help you visualize data, understand distributions, and see the effects of changing parameters in statistical models.
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We have embedded most of the applets directly on the Runestone pages and they should run across all platforms and browsers. In many cases, you may want to open the applet in a separate tab or window so you can toggle between the instructions and the applet, and so you can see the full width of the applet all at once.
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Interactive R Cells (Sage).

Throughout the book, you’ll find interactive R code cells powered by SageMath. These allow you to run R code directly in your browser without installing any software. Each cell is self-contained and runs independently.
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Important: Each Sage cell starts fresh - variables from one cell are not available in other cells. This is why you’ll see data creation code repeated in cells throughout an investigation.
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Advantages:
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  • No software installation required
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  • Works on any device with a web browser, however Mac users may have additional error messages pop up. Closing those messages (perhaps pressing Evaluate (R) again) and even supressing them (e.g., Chrome) should allow the R code to render. You will probably also often see a message in the output starting with <rpy2> which can be safely ignored.
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  • Great for quick explorations and learning concepts
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Limitations:
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  • Additional wrapper functions are used to load the ISCAM data files and applets. These are not required for using R with say RStudio. So if your goal is to become more proficient in R, you may want to copy and paste (and adjust) the commands into an R script.
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  • Each cell runs independently (no persistent workspace)
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Using RStudio.

Options:
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Accessing Data Files.

Data files for this textbook are available at ISCAM Data Files.
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You can access the ISCAM workspace functions used in this text by either:
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  • Using load(url("http://www.rossmanchance.com/iscam4/ISCAMData.RData")) in R or RStudio
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  • Installing the package: install.packages("ISCAM") and then use library(ISCAM)
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Using JMP.

JMP is statistical software with a graphical interface that some students may prefer. Instructions for JMP are provided alongside R instructions in the Technology Detours. JMP is available through many educational institutions or as a free trial from JMP.com.
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The ISCAM Journal File used in this text can be downloaded from here. You will want to right-click on this link to download (e.g., Download linked file as... ) the file (with the .jrn extension); then opening the file will launch JMP with easier access to some common functions used in this text.
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