This paper describes a classroom experience using a data gathering and analysis tool to scaffold a learning process that involves students in analysis of their own understanding about data. An AP-Statistics class uses data about their own sleep patterns to investigate measures of variability. The class applies various measures of variability to the sleep data set and comments on their efficacy using a survey created in Fathom. The students comment on the measures in groups and construct a common understanding of which measure is the best and why. Students in a statistics class should find themselves routinely engaged in data analysis. We conjecture that encounters with their own assessment data increases their appreciation of data analysis at the same time that it helps them identify weak areas of understanding. The students are not only learning about data variability but also about statistical process, data gathering and analysis.
The CAUSE Research Group is supported in part by a member initiative grant from the American Statistical Association’s Section on Statistics and Data Science Education