This activity looks at a realistic data set and walks the student through constructing a frequency table and histogram using Microsoft Excel. It should be noted that Excel is not the best software package for creating histograms, but because it one of, it not the most widely used software package for data storage and presentation in business, it is important to know how to create professional-looking and statistically accurate graphics using this tool.

There are two different ways to construct histograms in Excel: using the basic charting functions and using the data analysis add-in. This worksheet assumes that the data analysis add-in is not available and walks the student through finding frequencies from a data set using the frequency array function. The histogram is created using a column graph and adjusted so that the bars touch creating a true histogram with bins that start and end at the desired endpoints.

The activity concludes with several follow-up questions (along with an instructor’s key and guide) that can be assigned or reviewed to summarize the activity. The questions pertain to constructing frequency tables and histograms as well as interpreting results.

Created by Veronica P. Hupper, Ph.D.