Resource Library

June 23, 2009 Activity webinar presented and hosted by Leigh Slauson, Otterbein College. This webinar describes an activity that uses the playlist from an iPod music player to teach the concept of random selection, the various sampling techniques, and the use of simulation to estimate probability. The webinar includes a discussion of the background of this activity, the learning goals of the activity, how this activity can be adapted to different levels of technology, suggestions for assessment, and other supplemental reference materials. (handouts and other materials available for free download)

Webinar recorded May 9, 2006 presented by Carl Lee of Central Michigan University and hosted by Jackie Miller of The Ohio State University. Do you use hands-on activities in your class? Would you be interested in using data collected by students from different classes at different institutions? Would you be interested in sharing your students' data with others? Does it take more time than you would like to spend in your class for hands-on activities? Do you have to enter the hands-on activity data yourself after the class period? If your answer to any of the above questions is "YES", then, this Real-Time Online Database approach should be beneficial to your class. In this presentation, Dr. Lee (1) introduces the real-time online database (stat.cst.cmich.edu/statact) funded by a NSF/CCL grant, (2) demonstrates how to use the real-time database to teach introductory statistics using two of the real-time activities and (3) shares with you some of the assessment activities including activity work sheets and projects.

The AIMS project developed lesson plans and activities based on innovative materials that have been produced in the past few years for introductory statistics courses. These lesson plans and student activity guides were developed to help transform an introductory statistics course into one that is aligned with the Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE) for teaching introductory statistics courses. The lessons build on implications from educational research and also involve students in small and large group discussion, computer explorations, and hands-on activities.

A cartoon that might be used in introducing scatterplots and correlation. Cartoon by John Landers (www.landers.co.uk) based on an idea from Dennis Pearl (The Ohio State University). Free to use in the classroom and on course web sites.

November 24, 2009 Activity webinar presented by Carl Lee, Central Michigan University, and hosted by Leigh Slauson, Capital University. This webinar introduces a real-time online hands-on activity database for teaching introductory statistics. One particular activity, "How well can hand size predict height?", is used to engage students with a real-time activity in order to learn bivariate relationships. Various other activities can be found at stat.cst.cmich.edu/statact. The real-time database approach speeds up the process of data gathering and shifts the focus in order to engage students in the process of data production and statistical investigation.

In this game activity, students match correlation values with plots generated by the applet. Competition in this game setting encourages students to become more involved in the classroom and attainment of learning objectives. This game is best if used in a lab setting, although it may be modified to fit other classroom situations.

This activity begins with an instructor demonstration followed by a student out-of-class assignment. Students will observe their instructor create a scatterplot and observe how the correlation coefficient changes when outlier points are added. Students are then given a follow up assignment, which guides them through the applet. In addition, the assignment provides insight about outliers and their effect on correlation. This activity will show exactly how outliers numerically change the correlation coefficient value and to what degree.

This visualization activity combines student data collection with the use of an applet to enhance the understanding of the distributions of slope and intercept in simple linear regression models. The applet simulates a linear regression plot and the corresponding intercept and slope histograms. The program allows the user to change settings such as slope, standard deviation, sample size, and more. Students will then see theoretical distributions of the slope and intercept and how they compare to the histograms generated by the simulated linear regression lines.

This in-class demonstration combines real world data collection with the use of the applet to enhance the understanding of sampling distribution. Students will work in groups to determine the average date of their 30 coins. In turn, they will report their mean to the instructor, who will record these. The instructor can then create a histogram based on their sample means and explain that they have created a sampling distribution. Afterwards, the applet can be used to demonstrate properties of the sampling distribution. The idea here is that students will remember what they physically did to create the histogram and, therefore, have a better understanding of sampling distributions.

This site funded by the Kaiser Family Foundation provides information on health care and demographics for the 50 U.S. states. Users can use interactive maps or search by particular characteristics for each state. Tables can be created and copied and there is also direct data download (in Excel format) from this site. The site includes data on median income, gender, ethnicity, medical and drug spending, HIV/AIDS rates, and over 500 other variables at the state level