"Involving Undergraduates in Statistical Consulting"
with Tisha Hooks (presenter) and Chris Malone, Winona State University
Hosted by: Sam Morris, North Carolina State University
Winona State University has increasingly encouraged undergraduate research, and as a result, several programs on campus now include a research/capstone requirement. To meet the increase in demand for resources related to these types of requirements, the Department of Mathematics and Statistics created a Statistical Consulting Center on campus four years ago. A new course, Statistical Consulting and Communication, was also created at this time so that our own students could become involved with consulting opportunities on campus. This course has now been taught several times, and undergraduate students who have excelled in this course have been hired to work in the center. This poster will give an overview of our course in Statistical Consulting and Communication and will also include a discussion of what has worked well (and not-so-well) over the past few years that we have involved students in statistical consulting opportunities.
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Comments
Dennis Pearl:
How many students are assigned to a particular project? (i.e. do they work in teams? if so how do you manage the teamwork aspects of it)
Tisha Hooks:
Typically, there are 2-3 students working on each project. They decide as a group what exactly needs to be accomplished, and they usually break their project up into smaller tasks and then assign those tasks amongst themselves. Since the students do sometimes have varying backgrounds and levels of ability, it can at times be difficult for them to work together. This is one benefit to having them do work during class time - no student can get away with doing nothing because the instructor is there observing them work, and the instructor is also available to help those students who are struggling with their portion of the project.