Grade 9 Up?Krieger's subtitle suggests both a goal and a limitation on this utilitarian attempt to teach various statistical manipulations without going into background or proofs. Unfortunately, the author leaves readers wondering how and when to apply her methods to the average science project and why anyone in his or her right mind would perform the lengthy computations described. (Westinghouse Science Talent Search contestants that Krieger has worked with make a fairly small audience for the book.) The black-and-white photos add little in the way of content, and most are too dark to be termed "decorative." Too many of the vital tables and graphs are placed out of sight on the next page from the text that discusses them. But the book's biggest disadvantage is being assigned a call number of 001.4'22, far away from other books on statistics or science projects. John L. Phillips's How to Think about Statistics (W.H. Freeman, 1996) is useful to a far wider audience, supplying the reasons for all the operations that in Krieger's hands seem merely arbitrary. High-school science students can use Phillips's title to improve their presentations, but it can equally well serve as an introduction for students of statistics and as a layman's handbook to an inescapable facet of many other subjects of study.?Margaret Chatham, Fairfax County Library System, VA
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
[SERIES LAST REVIEWED IN BKL S 1 93, under Gardner, Robert. Gr. 9^-12.]
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