This interactive simulation allows students to graph and analyze sample distributions taken from a normally distributed population.

The normal distribution, sometimes called the bell curve, is a common probability distribution in the natural world. Scientists typically assume that a series of measurements taken from a population will be normally distributed when the sample size is large enough. In this Click & Learn, students can easily graph and explore the distributions of different samples taken from an idealized normally distributed population. Students can set the sample size, population mean, and population standard deviation, and observe how the sample distribution shifts when changing any of these variables.

The accompanying worksheet guides students’ exploration.

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