1) How long is your favorite movie?

2) Do you think the students in this class have favorite movies that are generally under or over 100 minutes? Explain.

To answer the question “How long are your favorite movies?” you will look at the distribution of the runtime (in minutes) of the favorite movies of students in this class. As a group, you will create two different graphical displays to visualize this distribution—a histogram and a dotplot.

3) Use technology to make the graphical display you were assigned by your instructor.

4) Write down 2 or 3 features of the distribution you observe from your graphical display.

5) Now let’s discuss what each group member observed about the distribution of runtimes from their graphical displays. Have each person share their graphical display and observations with the group.

After each group member has shared, discuss the following as a group. Write down the group’s responses to the following:

• What observations, if any, were the same for all group members?

• What observations, if any, were different? Can you make these observations from all of the graphical displays?

6) The following are a few questions we’d like to answer about the runtimes for your favorite movies. Answer each question and identify which graphical display(s) your group used to help answer each question.

Part A: Are there any students who have favorite movies longer than 2 hours (120 minutes)?

Part B: How many students have favorite movies that are less than 100 minutes?

Part C: How many students have favorite movies that are exactly 120 minutes?

Part D: Based on these data, is a student’s favorite movie more likely to be 100 minutes or 110 minutes?

7) Now let’s think about what you’ve done in Questions 3–6 to compare and contrast the histogram and dotplot.

Part A: As a group, discuss the pros and cons for each plot. Write down at least one pro and one con for each plot type.

Part B: Which plot type do you think is most useful for helping us visualize and understand the distribution of runtimes for the class’s favorite movies? Explain.

Part C: Suppose you wanted to visualize and understand the distribution of runtimes for 1,000 movies on IMDB. Which plot do you think is most useful for this analysis task? Explain. If your answer is different from Part B, briefly explain why.