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  • Members of the faculty of Le Moyne College made sweeping changes in the basic statistics course provided for the social and life sciences by the Department of Mathematics. The departments involved undertook an intensive collaboration. Intense scrutiny was given to the purpose and goals of the course. The result is a course that is significantly different from its predecessor. It places more emphasis on concepts and technology. A laboratory component was added to give students experience with Minitab and messy datasets. The implementation of the course had the expected problems. These are documented along with what was done to improve the course the second time it was offered.

  • An examination of publications of Sir Francis Galton and Karl Pearson revealed that Galton's work on inherited characteristics of sweet peas led to the initial conceptualization of linear regression. Subsequent efforts by Galton and Pearson brought about the more general techniques of multiple regression and the product-moment correlation coefficient. Modern textbooks typically present and explain correlation prior to introducing prediction problems and the application of linear regression. This paper presents a brief history of how Galton originally derived and applied linear regression to problems of heredity. This history illustrates additional approaches instructors can use to introduce simple linear regression to students.

  • In 1993 the Statistics Department at Iowa State University entered into a collaborative agreement with General Motors to develop and deliver a new sequence of courses titled "Applied Statistics for Industry." This paper describes the development and content of these courses as well as their method of delivery. In order to accommodate on campus students as well as students at a distance, the course is presented live at Iowa State University and by videotape delay at General Motors Technical Education sites in Michigan, Ohio, Arizona and Mexico, and across the country at sites of other partner industries. Some of the differences between a statistics course taught in the traditional campus setting and a statistics course taught at a distance will be highlighted. Since there are two audiences (on campus and off campus), several compromises are made in how the course is conducted. These compromises, and their possible effects on students in both environments, are discussed. A summary of how on and off campus students did in these courses over the past five years is included.

  • Curriculum guidelines for a bachelor of arts degree in statistical science are proposed. These guidelines are intended for liberal arts colleges, and other institutions where statistics is taught in departments of mathematics. A flexible curriculum is described consisting of three main parts: mathematics, core statistical topics and a substantive area of study. The curriculum guidelines permit and actively encourage the rethinking of traditional courses and the development of new courses. Guidelines for a minor in statistical science are also proposed. The guidelines are the result of an Undergraduate Statistics Education Initiative workshop held in Alexandria, Virginia in April 2000.

  • The dataset associated with this paper is from the 2000 regular season of the National Football League (NFL). We use principal components techniques to evaluate team "strength." In some of our analyses, the first two principal components can be interpreted as measure of "offensive" and "defensive" strengths, respectively. In other circumstances, the first principal component compares a team against its opponents.

  • A computer-assisted instructional (CAI) course in applied statistics has been taught for 15 years in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba. The CAI courseware was originally created to be the primary mode of instruction for the course, and it is very extensive in terms of content and style of presentation. The course includes 14 modules of instruction and 10 examinations, and it takes the average student about 80-90 hours of online instruction to complete. Originally programmed in IBM's Coursewriter II authoring language for use on an IBM 1500 system, the course continues to exist in this language, with some enhancement provided through the development of an in-house interpreter. Under the present CAI system, the course requires about 2.3 megabytes of memory, not counting the memory needed to store the interpreter, run-time system, and graphics. Estimates suggests that it would take approximately 14 megabytes of memory to hold only the course code on a MacIntosh microcomputer using Course of Action software. The future of the course in its present mode is not certain for a number of non-technical reasons, including maintenance costs on old hardware, curriculum changes, and the capabilities of microcomputers. Two tables depict the time requirements for students and computer memory requirements for each of the 14 topics covered by the one-semester introductory course. (4 references) (Author/EW)

  • Rezension von Hawkins, A.; Jolliffe, F.; Glickman, L.: Teaching statistical concepts. Stochastische Begriffe und Begriffsbildungen unterrichten. 1992.

  • Describes the software quincunx as a graphics-based simulation of the binomial distribution designed as a teaching aid for statistics and probability instruction. The user can define the binomial probability, number of trials, and number of repetitions. The program graphically simulates the action of a mechanical quincunx and provides a summary of observed and expected data. (PsycLIT Database Copyright 1991 American Psychological Assn, all rights reserved)

  • Rezension von Borovcnik: Stochastik im Wechselspiel von Intuition und Mathematik, 1992. Kurze Inhaltsangabe der einzelnen Kapitel.

  • The Journal of Statistics Education (JSE) has a unique structure and an inclusive philosophy that have technical consequences for readers and authors. This paper, a message from the journal's managing editor, explains why the JSE was built to have its unique structure, the format of information available to readers, and the effect the philosophy will have. The paper's Appendix outlines three groups of readers and associated methods of accessing the journal. The Appendix also describes the purpose and contents of the associated JSE Information Service.

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