Survey Says: Using Course Long Projects to Connect

Statistics to the Real World

AMATYC MeetingNovember 2007

Minneapolis, MN

Johnny Duke, Ph.D.Georgia Highlands College

Rome, Georgiajduke@highlands.edu

Survey Says

Connections

NCTM Process Standard

Connections among the various areas of mathematics.

Connections between mathematics and the real world.

Survey Says

Advice from the American Statistical Association

“… students should have the experience of applying their learning in settings as real as possible during their education. This could include co-ops, summer jobs, class projects …”

Ritter, Starbuck, and Hogg

Survey Says

Introduction to Statistics is a service course at Shorter College and at Georgia Highlands. A variety of majors: Business, Biology,

Ecology, Middle Grades Education, Mathematics, Social Sciences, History

Concern that learning was disjointed and isolated from real life.

First conceived of a semester long project while working with Service Learning.

Survey Says

Goals Connect what was being learned in

class with a real life application. Connect the various elements of

introductory statistics to each other. Learn to use technological tools

(calculators and computers) to organize and present data.

Give students an experience that would help prepare them for the use of statistics in their future careers.

Survey Says

Volunteerism Survey: Collecting Data Creation of a survey instrument

What types of data are needed? How to word the instrument for clarity.

Types of sampling techniques Random Sample Systematic Sample Stratified Sample Cluster Sample Convenience Sample

Survey Says

Volunteerism Survey: Organizing Data Database Entry

Standardize entry for consolidation Frequency Distributions

Categorical Ungrouped and Grouped

Graphs Bar graphs Pie Charts

Survey Says

Volunteerism Survey: Analyzing Data Measures of Central Tendency Measures of Variation Confidence Intervals Single Population Hypothesis Testing Two Population Hypothesis Testing

Did the sampling method appear to make a difference?

How do religious and non-religious volunteers compare?

Survey Says

Volunteerism Survey: Presenting Data

Graphs and Charts Written report

Connection with English Connection with skills in Introduction to

Computers

Survey Says

Other projects Television Sex and Violence Survey 1999

Data Collection Different The need for training became apparent Could be combined with literature research

Presidential Election Polls 2000 and 2004 Intersected with current political events Very similar process to Volunteerism Survey Students learned to use Minitab in 2000 and

Excel in 2004

Survey Says

Other Projects Spring 2001 The groups proposed projects that I could

approve or not approve. I provided a list to help them “brainstorm.” This made it easier for students to apply

statistics to their field/particular interests. There was unevenness in the amount of

statistics used in the projects in terms of correlating to the topics covered in class.

Survey Says

Other Projects Statistical Analysis of SAFE 2002

An after-school program of the Rome City Schools

Combined Service Learning Used this project to teach SPSS By far the most important project Disappointment with testing error that

caused the data to be thrown out

Survey Says

Other Projects Statistical Analysis of the Tax

Assessments for Residential Property in Floyd County 2003

Collection of data from the public records at the Tax Assessor’s Office

Comparison of actual selling prices with the appraised prices in 2002

Survey Says

Other projects Human Body Proportions and the

Golden Ratio 2005 Testing the claims from Internet sites on

the Golden Ratio Data Collection and Entry into Excel Descriptive Statistics Confidence Intervals and Hypotheses

Testing Correlation and Linear Regression

Survey Says

Other Projects Local Weather

Local high, low, and precipitation for a month from weather.com

Descriptive stats and graphs using Excel Probability and probability distributions Confidence Intervals Hypothesis Testing Correlation and Linear Regression

Survey Says

Other Projects Skittles (M&M’s)

Used in Maymester A much “lighter” project You can eat the data

Survey Says

Ideas from others Salaries of Major League Baseball

Players from USA Today – Wiseman & Chatterjee

Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll—Bolstad, Hunt, & McWhirter

Birth records from North Carolina—Holcomb & Ruffer

Survey Says

Ledotler’s List Salaries of Professors at the University of Iowa Predicting future student enrollment at U of Iowa ACT and College Performance Sports statistics Automotive Studies Safety of Iowa Roads Health-related Issues Real Estate listing and selling prices Sales and attendance analysis of a local restaurant Radio station preferences

Survey Says

Grading Series of worksheets Total generally equivalent to 1.5 to 2

test grades Both individual and group work

Survey Says

Result of One Student Survey 94% agreed with “These projects helped me to

better understand statistical concepts.” 82% agreed with “Using the same data set

repeatedly has helped me to see there is a range of statistical procedures (techniques) that may be used to investigate/answer the same question.”

97% agreed with “These projects helped me to learn how to construct graphs and tables for statistical analysis.”

82% agreed with “Working in groups helped me to learn to communicate statistical ideas.”

Holcomb & Ruffer, p. 52

Survey Says

What are your questions?

What are your ideas and/or experiences?

Print Resources

Bolstad, W. M., Hunt, Lyn A., and McWhirter, Judith L. “Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll Survey in First-Year Service Course in Statistics,” The American Statistician, 55, 145-149.

Duke, Johnny I. “Service Learning: Taking Mathematics into the Real World,” The Mathematics Teacher, 92, 794-796.

Holcomb, John P. And Ruffer, Rochelle L., “Using a Term-Long Project Sequence in Introductory Statistics,” The American Statistician, 54, 49-53.

Kvam, Paul H. “The Effect of Active Learning Methods on Student Retention in Engineering Statistics,” The American Statistician, 54, 136-140.

Print Resources

Ledolter, Johannes. “Projects in Introductory Statistics Courses,” The American Statistician, 49, 364-367.

Ritter, Mary Ann, Starbuck, Robert R., and Hogg, Robert V. “Advice From Prospective Employers on Training BS Statisticians,” The American Statistician, 55, 14-18.

Root, Rob and Thorme, Trisha. “Community-Based Projects in Applied Statistics: Using Service-Learning to Enhance Student Understanding,” The American Statistician, 55, 326-331.

Wiseman, Frederick and Chatterjee, Sangit. “Major League Baseball Player Salaries: Bringing Realism into Introductory Statistics Courses,” The American Statistician, 51, 350-352.

Internet Resources

http://www.cis.ysu.edu/~jholcomb/projects/projects.htm This site provides the database and materials that accompany the project described in Holcomb and Ruffer’s article.

http://asp.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/salaries/ This is the USA Today site for Major League Baseball salaries from 1988 through the current season.

http://asp.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/salaries/ This is the USA Today site for NFL salaries from the 2000 season to date.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/nba/salaries00.htm This is the USA Today site for NBA salaries for the 2000/2001 year.

http://www.census.gov/ The official site of the US Census Bureau, which contains a wealth of statistical information.