Carolin WendlerAshley Karanja

Janani Kurukularatne

For countries around the world [1], we collected 2007 data for:

• Life Expectancy • Maths Achievement in the 4th

Grade• Maths Achievement in the 8th

Grade We created scatter plots for:• Life Expectancy versus Maths

Achievement in the 4th Grade • Life Expectancy versus Maths

Achievement in the 8th GradeTo both plots we fitted a straight line

using least squares regression.We calculated Pearson’s correlation

coefficients and the coefficients of determination.

To see where Australians fits within international statistics we created a box and whisper plots for both Life Expectancy and Maths Achievement in 4th and 8th Grade .

4th Grade

200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 65040

45

50

55

60

65

70

75

80

85

90

Average TIMSS Test Results

Life

Exp

ecta

ncy

Life expectancy = 0.0209 x average TIMSS test results + 65.844R² = 0.1396R= 0.3736

200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 65040

45

50

55

60

65

70

75

80

85

90

Average TIMSS test results

Life

Exp

ecta

ncy

8th Grade

Life expectancy = 0.0466 x average TIMSS test results + 53.551R² = 0.2805R= 0.5296

There is a weak positive relationship between Life Expectancy and 4th Grade Math’s Achievement. 37% of the variation in the life expectancy data is explained by the variation in the 4th Grade data.

There is a moderate positive relationship between Life Expectancy and 8th Grade Math's Achievement. 53% of the variation in the life expectancy data is explained by the variation in the 8th Grade data.

From the box plots we can see Australians have life expectancy in the top quarter of the world’s countries. Their Math’s Achievement in the 4th and 8th Grade is also in the top 25% as expected from our scatter plots.

We only used data from one year, 2007. We need to check that out results are true for other years.

The coefficients of determination only tell us that there is an association between variables, not that one variable depends on another. More analysis would be required to establish that dependency.

The Maths achievement was observed for both 4th and 8th grade compared to life expectancy. The data portrayed that the greater the maths achievement the greater the life expectancy rates in 2007. To improve the validity of our conclusion we need to conduct a similar analysis for other years.

References [1] Mathematical Achievement in Eight Grade,2013, gapminder.org [accessed 06.09.2013][2] Mathematical Achievement in Four Grade,2013, gapminder.org [accessed 06.09.2013][3] Mathematical Achievement in Life ExpectancyGrade,2013, gapminder.org [accessed 06.09.2013]