I agree that using statistical spreadsheets and applets is extremely important for keeping the course modern and relevant for our students. Primarily, many of these tools allow students to scrape websites for current data sets, or import large data sets that come in *.csv form. Students can then access and analyze data that is interesting to them.
In addition, many of these data sets have qualitative variables that cannot be analyzed using hand-held calculators. I believe students should be required to analyze proportions when the variable is "yes/no" or "agree/disagree" rather than 450 of 1010 individuals surveyed agree with the following statement.
Lastly, I believe it is important for students to recognize that new variables may be created from existing variables within a data set (and actually create the variables). For example, suppose data comes in the form "month/day/year". Most statistical software would allow the creation of a variable that yields day of the week. This allows for analysis of a response variable by day, which is a nice introduction to multivariable thinking.
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Michael Sullivan
Sullivan Texts; Joliet Junior College
Joliet IL
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-02-2022 20:08:37
From: Rebecca Wong
Subject: IMPACT in Action - Staying up-to-date in an Introductory Statistics Course
The Joint ASA/AMATYC Committee recently sponsored a great webinar by Roxy Peck, The Case for Better Technology in Introductory Statistics. Here's a link to the recording on AMATYC's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO3gHxZrHyQ
I agree that the we need to give our students access to more powerful technology than the TI calculator, technology that enables students to analyze real data sets and gives them experience with modern statistical tools. This webinar is a great starting point for investigating other technologies to use in the intro stats course.
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Rebecca Wong
Instructor
West Valley College
Saratoga CA
Original Message:
Sent: 05-02-2022 19:16:02
From: Mark Earley
Subject: IMPACT in Action - Staying up-to-date in an Introductory Statistics Course
I think it's important to keep an eye on what is going on globally, so that I can incorporate those events into my examples and assessments when possible. This increases relevance for students, which can increase their interest in learning stats (for some). I think it is also necessary to keep up with trends in statistical analysis so students are learning information that is actually in use today. This is a bit harder when the course content is not 100% under my control. For example, we're still using the TI calculator for "technology," and that clearly needs to change.
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Mark Earley
he/him/his
Assistant Professor
Columbus State CC
Columbus OH
mearley3@cscc.edu
Original Message:
Sent: 05-01-2022 15:20:23
From: Rebecca Wong
Subject: IMPACT in Action - Staying up-to-date in an Introductory Statistics Course
How do you keep your introductory statistics class up-to-date and relevant to student needs each year?
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Rebecca Wong
Instructor
West Valley College
Saratoga CA
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