Pedagogical simulations with StatCrunch

Abstract

In introductory statistics courses, web-based applets are often used to visually conduct large simulation studies illustrating statistical concepts. However, it is difficult to determine what (if anything) students learn from repeatedly pressing a button when using applets. More advanced options such as writing/running computer code are typically considered to be much too advanced for most introductory courses. The web-based software package, StatCrunch, now offers simulation capabilities that strike a middle ground between these two extremes. The instructor/student needs only to perform a small number of steps using the menu driven interface with each step being key to understanding the underlying data structure. This talk will cover the steps required to study concepts such as the central limit theorem, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing and regression using StatCrunch.