Data Analysis & Presentation Using Excel

Created in cooperation with FireStats, LLC., this three-day hands-on workshop aims to give fire officers a comprehensive understanding of the popular analytic and statistical tools available to the fire service which are especially useful in Standards of Cover. The curriculum is designed to introduce some basic statistical concepts that are reinforced with actual fire service data. The data is analyzed by the students using Microsoft Excel tools that are introduced in the class curriculum. Students have a new perspective on basic statistics, new Excel tools to use in their analyses, and practice using both theoretical and practical analytic approaches to their own fire departments' data and experiences.  The following topics are covered in class: Working with large fire service data sets, Quantitative tools for working with Standards of Cover (descriptive statistics, charts and graphs,) Methods for calculating effective response force and unit concentrations, Methods for evaluating units™ order of arrival at scene by unit type, The use of Microsoft Excel Data Analysis Tool Pack, a very powerful summary statistics tool, Blended/weighted averages, Calculating and evaluating unit and system reliability, Percentiles, fractiles and cumulative frequencies, Correlation -- examining data points, evaluating and discarding outliers, Data sorting and summary statistics tools including Pivot Tables, Filtering, Sorting and Sub-totaling, Methods and best practices for use of statistics in fire service performance measurements.