Deep Dive Into Visual Representation and Interrater Agreement Using Data From a High-School Diving Competition

Abstract

In several sporting events, the winner is chosen on the basis of a subjective score. These sports include gymnastics, ice skating, and diving. Unlike for other subjectively judged sports, diving competitions consist of multiple rounds in quick succession on the same apparatus. These multiple rounds lead to an extra layer of complexity in the data, and allow the introduction of graphical constructs and interrater-agreement methods to statistics students. The data are sufficiently easy to understand for students in introductory statistics courses, yet sufficiently complex for upper level students. In this article, I present data from a high-school diving competition that allows for investigation in graphical methods, data manipulation, and interrater agreement methods. I also provide a list of questions for exploration at the end of the document to suggest how an instructor can effectively use the data with students. These questions are not meant to be exhaustive, but rather generative of ideas for an instructor using the data in a classroom setting. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.

Keywords

• data visualization
• intermediate statistics
• interrater agreement
• introductory statistics
• pedagogy
• statistics in sports