Incorporating Research Projects Within a Statistics Course

Dr. Shonda KuiperGrinnell College

www.pearsonhighered.com/kuiper1einfo/

kuipers@grinnell.edu

Why is Research Important?

Student Gains in Undergraduate Research*: Increased confidence Improved ability to work independently Deepened knowledge in the field and improved

understanding of conceptual connections Improved communication skills Improved critical thinking and problem-solving skills,

including analyzing and interpreting results Understanding how knowledge is constructed Improved writing skills

*Laursen, S., Hunter, A.-B., Seymour, E., Thiry, H., & Melton, G. (2010). Undergraduate Research in the Sciences: Engaging Students in Real Science. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. These results are consistent across multiple studies.

Why is Research Important?

Student Gains in Undergraduate Research*: Ability to comprehend and critique literature Understanding of the nature of research work Tolerance and perseverance Understanding collaboration as a professional work

norm Intrinsic interest in learning Thinking creatively

*Laursen, S., Hunter, A.-B., Seymour, E., Thiry, H., & Melton, G. (2010). Undergraduate Research in the Sciences: Engaging Students in Real Science. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. These results showed occurred many studies.

Why is Research Important?

Fewer first-generation students, under-represented minorities, and women engage in undergraduate research, but these underrepresented students benefit even more than their peers*.

Authentic research experiences are expensive and time consuming.

*Kuh, G. D. (2008). High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter. Association of American Colleges & Universities. (High-Impact Educational Practices: A Brief Overview)

CURE survey of undergraduate science courses that contain research-like experiences. “Group work, reading primary literature, data

collection and analysis… students conduct research in which the outcome

is not known (even to the course instructor) and students have at least some input into the research topic and design of the methodological approach.*”

Why is Research Important?

*Lopatto, D., Undergraduate Research as a High-Impact Student Experience, Association of American Colleges and Universities, Spring 2010, Vol. 12, No. 2, http://www.aacu.org/peerreview/pr-sp10/pr-sp10_Lopatto.cfm

Why is Research Important?

Students can benefit from research or “research-like” experiences embedded in the course curriculum: “Students in high research-like courses report

learning gains similar in kind and degree to gains reported by students in dedicated summer research programs*”

“evidence is emerging that these approaches are introducing more underrepresented minorities to scientific research in the classroom**”

*Lopatto, D., Undergraduate Research as a High-Impact Student Experience, Association of American Colleges and Universities, Spring 2010, Vol. 12, No. 2, http://www.aacu.org/peerreview/pr-sp10/pr-sp10_Lopatto.cfm ** Cynthia A. Wei and Terry Woodin Undergraduate Research Experiences in Biology: Alternatives to the Apprenticeship Model, CBE Life Sci Educ, Vol. 10, 123–131, Summer 2011

“A common ingredient of success is identifying a suitable research problem that uses a set of common tools (which can be taught to the students as a group) but can be subdivided to provide students with individual projects. Often these parts are reassembled to derive more

informative conclusions. Well-designed projects also provide extensive

opportunities for peer interaction and mutual support.*”

* Cynthia A. Wei and Terry Woodin Undergraduate Research Experiences in Biology: Alternatives to the Apprenticeship Model, CBE Life Sci Educ, Vol. 10, 123–131, Summer 2011

Why is Research Important?

An Introduction to a Research Project

Memorathon is a game in which players attempt to remember sequences of buttons

How long of a sequence can students in your class remember?

Formulate a null and alternative hypothesis What would you like to show? Should we work with means?

http://kuiper.pearsoncmg.com/memorathon/

An Introduction to a Research Project

An Introduction to a Research Project

An Introduction to a Research Project

Each student in the class can play the game. Copy and paste the data into Minitab, Excel, or other

statistical software package. Create a histogram or box plot of the data.

Are there any outliers or skewness shown in your plots? Are there any errors in the data? Correct or delete the

erroneous data. Calculate a p-value for your study State your conclusions

Do the conclusions hold for all students at your school?

A Simple Research Project

Memory is the process of retaining and recalling knowledge or experiences. Human memory is very complex and can be tested in many ways. Factors that are commonly used to test memory include: Nature of the material, such as letters, numbers,

symbols, words, sentences. Characteristics of these materials can also be altered. For example, Paivio 1969 found a difference in people’s ability to recall concrete words (such as dog, house) versus abstract words (such as joy, ugly). Word length and commonness of the word can also impact recall.

A Simple Research Project Nature of the test. Similar tests can have different instructions for the subjects.

Subjects may or may not be told that the purpose of the experiment is testing memory.

Retention interval between when the material is presented and when it is recalled (Ebbinghaus, 1885 and MacLeod, 1988).

Rate of presentation, or how quickly the material is presented. Amount of material presented. Modality. Do people recall material better when it is presented visually, orally

or both (Scarborough, 1972, Brown, 1958; Peterson and Peterson, 1959)? Study Strategy. How does each person try to learn (i.e. encode) the material?

For example, does the person think about the meaning of each word he or she is trying to remember or does he or she simply think about the appearance of the word (Craik and Lockhart, 1972; Craik and Tulving, 1975; Gardiner, Java, and Richardson-Klavehn, 1996; Lockhart and Craik, 1990)

A Simple Research Project

A Simple Research Project

Clearly define a problem and state the objectives of your experiment.

Identify the factors, levels, and units.

Verify that the response variable provides the information needed to address the question of interest.

 Are there other factors that may be of importance or potentially cause bias in your results? Identify what other factors need to be controlled during the experiment to eliminate potential biases.

A Simple Research Project

How many trials (games) will be played? If each subject plays more than one game, how will you determine the order in which each game will be played?

Choose an experimental design. Will you use regression, t-tests, chi-square tests, ANOVA or other technique? Keep the design and analysis as simple as possible. A straightforward design and analysis is usually better than complex designs. If the design is too complicated and the data are not collected properly, even the most advanced statistical techniques may not be able to draw appropriate conclusions from your experiment.

An Advanced Research Project

Read article by Surprenant, A. M. (2001). Identify units, explanatory and response variables,

objective of the study, lurking variables Play the game and develop your own research

hypothesis Clearly define a problem and state the objectives of your

experiment Identify units, response and explanatory variables What other factors need to be controlled Choose an experimental design How does your experiment build on previous work?

An Advanced Research Project

Discuss the study with a psychologist Prepare questions for a cognitive psychologist Write lab procedures IRB proposal?

Conduct the study Discuss final design with professor Collect data

Write research paper Submit first draft in class for peer review Revise paper Submit final paper, peer comments, data, and variable

descriptions

Description of Course Material

Investigation: Guided activities step students through a case-based introduction to each statistical topic Focus on conceptual understanding - only AP stats

background is required Emphasizes reasoning for techniques and what it tells

you Extended activities provide optional mathematical

details and more advanced ideas (how to compute) Guided research projects (Memorathon) use current

research to motivate students to apply statistical techniques to a new context

1- 2: Students work through much of the introductory investigation from the text outside of class. Class time is used to discuss the investigation, answer questions, and lecture on more complicated aspects of the chapter.

3: Students continue to work through textbook problems, read the Suprenant article and play game before class. Class time is used to discuss potential project designs.

4: Students meet in small groups to discuss project design with professor.

5: Students continue to work through textbook problems. Class time is used to finish any questions form the textbook.

6: Students start next chapter in text, submit data. Class time is used to discuss next chapter.

7: Students submit drafts of paper or poster presentations.

Day

Course Outline

1- 4: Randomization and Permutation Tests (Schistosomiasis) Making Connections: The 2-sample t-test, Regression and ANOVA Project: Memo to University President

(Gender Discrimination in Faculty Salaries)

5-6: Multiple Regression (Estimating Car Prices)

7-8: Design of Experiments (Microwave Popcorn) Project: PowerPoint Presentation (What Impacts Memory?)

9-10: Categorical (Space Shuttle Challenger ) Logistic Regression (Detecting Cancer through Fine Needle Aspiration) Project: 5-7 page paper

Infant Handling Among Yellow Baboons (simulation study) Substance Abuse among Youth (logistic regression) Economic Growth in 3rd World Countries (multiple regression)

11-12: Principal Component Analysis (Stock Market Values) Project: Executive Summary (The Hockey Stick Controversy)

13-15: Final Projects (Posters)

Week

Course Outline

Benefits

Broaden student understanding of the intellectual content and applicability of statistics as a discipline Real interdisciplinary datasets Gain an appreciation for multidisciplinary group work Bridge the gap from smaller, focused textbook

problems to large projects

Benefits

Students are engaged by seeing the results of their unique research question. A classroom environment where groups of students

are conducting unique (but related) research projects creates an atmosphere where students are eager to share their work.

Students want to compare their results and discuss how slight modifications in their data collection or model assumptions can impact the results.

Students share tips, experiences, and knowledge which can be similar to peer-to-peer teaching.

Benefits

Context fosters a sense of engagement and encourages students to go deeper than the assignment requires Clear links between learning and goals: real data

provides an intrinsic motivation to ask more questions Provides early steps to a new domain; students often

choose to read additional literature from other disciplines

Emphasizes the full statistical process in a study Connections between statistical techniques and context

reinforces conceptual understanding rather than mere rote knowledge of procedures.

Incorporating Research Projects Within a Statistics Course

Dr. Shonda KuiperGrinnell College

www.pearsonhighered.com/kuiper1einfo/

kuipers@grinnell.edu