On my StatBlog I put together a post about this spring’s StatCrunch contest – check it out here. This is a fun contest for students to use what they are learning in your Intro Stats class and use a set of data to tell a story. There are cash prizes for the top three finishers. Link to the Contest YouTube Conference Announcement Please share with your students. You do not need to be using StatCrunch in your classes – Pearson…
(Sorry for the lack of blogging here … I have two texts in production and it has really slowed me down …) Last week in my Statistics classes we learned to construct confidence intervals for a population proportion and a population mean. On the last day of the week I had students work on a project that contained a mixture of these types of confidence intervals, and then students had to extend their knowledge to use the interval to perform…
Last fall I began using an approach to incorporate inferential techniques into my Intro Stats course much earlier than I used to. (Hat tip to Matt Davis from Chabot College in CA for the inspiration to do this.) I began using simulations, randomization, and bootstrapping to start exploring statistical inference. I introduced my students to the concept of confidence intervals and evaluating claims about population parameters based on sample evidence. I first formalize the hypothesis testing language and procedure with…
Last fall I started teaching my intro stats class using the flipped classroom model. I have found many benefits to this approach: My students are more active and engaged in class. I am able to cover much more material than I ever covered before – including simulations, bootstrapping, and non parametric tests. My students level of understanding when it comes to inferential statistics and the “big picture” is higher than ever. I am currently blogging each day, documenting my progress…
The Bootstrap Method The bootstrap method is a very useful tool to have an introductory statistics class. The bootstrap method begins with a sample of size n. Then a large number (I use 10,000 in my classes) of samples of size n are drawn with replacement from that sample. A sample statistic is computed for each sample. A typical use of bootstrapping involves the mean, but this procedure can be applied to the median, quartiles, variance, … Percentiles can be…
My first week of day-by-day blogging is complete. If you’d like to see where I go in week 2, including an introduction to inferential statistics through simulation and randomization, check out the blog here: https://georgewoodbury.com/statblog/. I created the blog to discuss the power of Interactive Statistics, Interactive Reading Assignments (read a little, watch a little, do a little), Learning Catalytics, StatCrunch, and the Flipped Classroom. I promise you will find tips and tools that will increase student learning.
I’m really proud of this latest study involving our Interactive Statistics (I am a co-author with Michael Sullivan) by Sam Bazzi at Henry Ford College. I saw Sam present his results at ICTCM and was really impressed. I encourage you to check out his case study. Read the Study Here This reinforces the fact that there is not a better product to use in an online statistics course: students persisted at higher rates and their test scores improved as the…
I have had a few questions about how I am managing to work all of these early inferential projects into my Intro Stats course. 1) Switching from Chapter Exams to a Midterm and a Final In the first 7 chapters of our textbook I used to give 4 exams. That means that I would use 4 days for exams and approximately 6 days for review. I have 4 days built into my calendar for review (2 days) and the midterm…
This semester I have incorporated a three-pronged strategy in my intro statistics classes: Flip the classroom – having students learn material at home Make the classroom more engaging – using more group activities and Learning Catalytics sessions Focus on early inferential statistics early and often This week began with students learning about the 5-number summary and how to create a boxplot. On Monday we did an activity where students compared two samples of quantitative data in an effort to determine…
My students are wrapping up the part of the course where we cover descriptive statistics. I gave them two sets of data (test scores from two different versions of the same exam) and they spent the day in class computing sample statistics and creating graphs for each sample. Their overall goal was to analyze their results and determine whether there was a significant difference between the two versions or not. Download a pdf of this activity Students compared measures of…