Literature Index

We have developed a model for teaching mathematical statistics through detailed case studies. We use these case studies to bridge the gap between statistical theory and practice, and to help students develop an understanding of the basic ideas in mathematical statistics. We also use them to motivate students to explore the concepts of statistics. Although we strongly advocate teaching mathematical statistics through case studies, there are many challenges that arise from this approach. In this paper, we describe how we incorporate case studies in the course, outline the challenges that we face in adopting this approach, and discuss our efforts to overcome these challenges.

The present paper is concerned with the role of causal reasoning in judgments under uncertainty and with some biases that are associated with this mode of thinking.

The CensusAtSchool project involves young people between the ages of 7 and 16 in gathering some simple information about themselves, which then form the basis of a national database for school children to use for data handling within many varied subject areas in school. At the very heart of the project the CensusAtSchool website http://www.censusatschool.ntu.ac.uk gives schools the opportunity to access and use the web within a learning environment. Summary data is posted on the site for schools to use along with a variety of curriculum tasks, which encourage greater use of ICT methods. South Africa and Queensland have both taking up the project within their own regions so expanding the project into providing opportunities for international comparisons to be made. The beauty of CensusAtSchool is that the data is real and the pupils themselves are fully involved.

Modern approaches for information technology based blended education utilize a variety of novel instructional, computational and network resources. Such attempts employ technology to deliver integrated, dynamically linked, interactive content and multi-faceted learning environments, which may facilitate student comprehension and information retention. In this manuscript, we describe one such innovative effort of using technological tools for improving student motivation and learning of the theory, practice and usability of the Central Limit Theorem (CLT) in probability and statistics courses. Our approach is based on harnessing the computational libraries developed by the Statistics Online Computational Resource (SOCR) to design a new interactive Java applet and a corresponding demonstration activity that illustrate the meaning and the power of the CLT. The CLT applet and activity have clear common goals; to provide graphical representation of the CLT, to improve student intuition, and to empirically validate and establish the limits of the CLT. The SOCR CLT activity consists of four experiments that demonstrate the assumptions, meaning and implications of the CLT and ties these to specific hands-on simulations. We include a number of examples illustrating the theory and applications of the CLT. Both the SOCR CLT applet and activity are freely available online to the community to test, validate and extend (Applet: http://www.socr.ucla.edu/htmls/SOCR_Experiments.html and Activity: http://wiki.stat.ucla.edu/socr/index.php/SOCR_EduMaterials_Activities_Ge...).