Literature Index

In teaching undergraduate time series courses, we have used a mixture of various statistical packages. We have finally been able to teach all of the applied concepts within one statistical package; R. This article describes the process that we use to conduct a thorough analysis of a time series. An example with a data set is provided. We compare these results to an identical analysis performed on Minitab.

Too often students leave their first statistics course with at best a fuzzy understanding of basic statistical concepts and procedures. A disconcertingly high proportion cannot adequately describe or perform a t-test, for example, when taking subsequent courses. This suggests that a different approach to teaching and learning is necessary, particularly for graduate students who will need statistical tools in their research. Rote memorization of facts does not provide the preparation requisite for graduate research. A constructivist approach in course design could provide a learning environment in which students move beyond lower level cognitive skill development. Initial implementation of this approach has produced encouragingly positive results.

This article describes a classroom activity designed to stimulate students to think creatively about methods of selecting a representative sample from a population. Students are presented with a data set consisting of gender, SAT verbal score, SAT mathematics score, and high school grade point average for 317 freshmen from North Carolina State University. The students, who have not yet studied sampling, work in groups of three or four to generate three possible methods for selecting a representative sample of 20 freshmen from the population of 317. Each group uses its proposed methods to select three samples and computes various summary statistics and plots for the variables in each sample. The students are then given corresponding information for the entire population. After comparing sample statistics and population parameters, the groups evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed sampling methods. During the two semesters that I have used this activity in my Statistics 101 class, students have "invented" simple random sampling, systematic sampling, stratified sampling, and various combinations thereof.

This article describes the "Chance" course that was created based, in part, on Chance magazine. The aim of the course is to study important current news items whose understanding requires a knowledge of chance concepts.