F19: Passion-Driven Statistics

Information

Passion-Driven Statistics (https://passiondrivenstatistics.com) is a project-based, introductory statistics curriculum that supports students in conducting original research with real-world data. Funded by NSF, our curriculum provides context and meaning to their understanding of statistics. We support students in evaluating evidence in the service of answering their research questions they are passionate about with real data. In pursuing these answers, students also learn basic statistical programming in a software platform of their instructors' choosing (e.g., SAS, R, SPSS, Stata, Python). In this time of rapid change, Passion-Driven Statistics offers a flexible and adaptive way to reach diverse student populations. There are no canned exercises or other entertaining maneuvers. Instead, the focus is on welcoming and empowering students to ask and answer questions they care about. We take advantage of students' natural curiosity and provide a common language for approaching questions. Students work with descriptive and inferential statistics as well as basic statistical programming concepts and skills in the pursuit of managing and analyzing data. This original work is presented at a research poster session in which students have the opportunity to describe their process of inquiry, including the different decisions made along the way, their premises, conclusions and any barriers faced.