"Critical thinking with data" is a new "University Breadth Subject" developed for first year<br>students under The University of Melbourne's "Melbourne Model". It aims to teach important<br>elements of statistical science, with minimal mathematics, and was taught in first semester 2008.<br>We present our approaches to assessment of the subject. This has required the use of approaches<br>that are quite distinct from mainstream statistical subjects, since students are not really being<br>taught to do statistical work. They are required to make astute judgments of material with<br>quantitative information, including such texts as a short article about some research in the<br>newspaper. We have used a variety of forms of assessment, including weekly quizzes, (very) short<br>assignments, and a larger project. The style of assessment is more consistent with that used in<br>humanities subjects, and therefore has some important challenges for staff involved in marking,<br>for example.
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