Curriculum

  • The goal of this text is to provide a broad set of topics and methods that will give students a solid foundation in understanding how to make decisions with data. This text presents workbook-style, project-based material that emphasizes real world applications and conceptual understanding. Each chapter contains:

    • An introductory case study focusing on a particular statistical method in order to encourage students to experience data analysis as it is actually practiced.
    • A guided research project that walks students through the entire process of data analysis, reinforcing statistical thinking and conceptual understanding.
    • Optional extended activities that provide more in-depth coverage in diverse contexts and theoretical backgrounds. These sections are particularly useful for more advanced courses that discuss the material in more detail. Some Advanced Lab sections that require a stronger background in mathematics are clearly marked throughout the text.
    • Data sets from multiple disciplines and software instructions for Minitab and R.

    The text is highly adaptable in that the various chapters/parts can be taken out of order or even skipped to customize the course to your audience. Depending on the level of in-class active learning, group work, and discussion that you prefer in your course, some of this work might occur during class time and some outside of class. 

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  • The Global Terrorism Database (GTD) contains information about more than 140,000 terrorist incidents occurring between 1970 and 2014. The data in the GTD are gathered from information gathered through multiple news sources (LaFree, Dugan, & Miller, 2015). In this activity, we will study the extent to which chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) weapons have been used so far. We analyze whether or not their past use fits with our perceptions. Have CBRN weapons been used successfully in the past? Which weapons are more historically dangerous (more fatalities, injuries) in the hands of terrorists? What are the implications of past usage of CBRN weapons compared to other weapons in determining our priorities in counter-terrorism policies?

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  • The NYPD lab uses interactive, online graphs to better understand patterns in stop and arrest data for the New York Police Department. These data were originally collected by New York Police Department officers and record information gathered as a result of stop question and frisk (SQF) encounters during 2006. These data were used in a study carried out, under contract to the New York City Police Foundation, by the Rand Corporation's Center on Quality Policing. The release of the study, "Analysis of Racial Disparities in the New York Police Department's Stop, Question, and Frisk Practices" (Rand Document TR-534-NYCPF, 2007) generated interest in making the data available for secondary analysis. This data collection contains information on the officer's reasons for initiating a stop, whether the stop led to a summons or arrest, demographic information for the person stopped, and the suspected criminal behavior."

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  • The Military Spending lab uses interactive, online graphs to better understand total military spending for each country. We see the limitations of traditional histograms and also consider the importance of using appropriate scales when comparing countries.  The emphasisis of this lab is on understanding the impact of appropriate data transformations and data visualizations.

    App:  http://shiny.grinnell.edu/Military_Spending_Basic/

    Handout:  http://web.grinnell.edu/individuals/kuipers/stat2labs/Handouts/MilSpendB...

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  • Learn to distinguish between exponential and logistic growth of populations, identify carrying capacity, differentiate density-dependent and density-independent limiting factors, apply population models to data sets and determine carrying capacity from population data. Make predictions on graphs and interpret graphical data to analyze factors that influence population growth.

    This link includes a lesson plan, assessment materials, and access to SmartGraphs, a software that helps students create and interpret graphs.

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  • This website provides a comprehensive overview of descriptive statistics (mean/median/mode, range, standard deviation, and variance) through informative webpages with examples, links to data sets, and problems for the readers to try for themselves.

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  • Correspondence analysis is a method allowing you to describe synthetically a contingency table in which homogeneous individuals are classified on two criterias (or categorical variables, continuous ones being usable if discretized).  This resource tells how it can be used, graphical representations of this process, and gives examples of it in action. 

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  • The Research Methods Knowledge Base is a comprehensive web-based textbook that addresses all of the topics in a typical introductory undergraduate or graduate course in social research methods.  It covers the entire research process including: formulating research questions; sampling (probability and nonprobability); measurement (surveys, scaling, qualitative, unobtrusive); research design (experimental and quasi-experimental); data analysis; and, writing the research paper.  It also addresses the major theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of research including: the idea of validity in research; reliability of measures; and ethics.  The Knowledge Base was designed to be different from the many typical commercially-available research methods texts.  It uses an informal, conversational style to engage both the newcomer and the more experienced student of research.  It is a fully hyperlinked text that can be integrated easily into an existing course structure or used as a sourcebook for the experienced researcher who simply wants to browse.

     

    Navigate this source:  http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/contents.php  

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  • The Probability Web is a collection of probability resources designed to be especially helpful to researchers, teachers, and people in the probability community.  Web page links on this site include probabilty/statistics books and journals, information on mathematics and statistics-based careers, statistical software, teaching resources on probabilty topics, and more.

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  • The ARTIST website provides a variety of assessment resources for teaching first courses in statistics. ARTIST's goal is to help teachers assess statistical literacy, statistical reasoning, and statistical thinking in their statistics classes. Registration is required to use assessment materials.

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