Webinars

This webinar will present data, tools, materials and the pedagogical approach of the Statistics Online Computational Resource (SOCR) for technology-enhanced probability and statistics education. Following a review of the different types of SOCR online resources, we will go over two specific classroom utilization examples. The first one provides a hands-on demonstration of a statistical concept (CLT) using interactive virtual experiments and simulations. The second example will showcase the use of SOCR resources to address interesting social, health, environmental, scientific, and engineering challenges. In this case, we'll focus on the Ozone pollution in California, formulate health-related hypotheses, identify appropriate data and employ web-based exploratory and statistical data analysis tools. What is www.SOCR.ucla.edu? The Statistics Online Computational Resource provides portable online aids for probability and statistics education, technology based instruction and statistical computing. SOCR tools and resources include a repository of interactive applets, computational and graphing tools, instructional and course materials. SOCR aims to develop new Java applets, design diverse extensible SOCR learning activities, develop XML/HTML navigation/search tools for interactive materials, and validate and assess technology-enhances pedagogical techniques. SOCR Products Tools/Applets: Distributions, Experiments, Analyses, Games, Modeler & Graphs. Multilingual instructional resources: EBooks, continuing statistics education workshops/seminars Learning activities: interactive, data-driven and technology-enhanced learning activities Examples: Central Limit Theorem Hands-on California Ozone Data Activity Data: Diverse publicly accessible datasets for copy-paste/download utilization Example: Latin Letters Frequency Distribution Dissemination: papers, conferences, workshops, etc. SOCR Evaluation and Efficacy We have conducted several control-based studies of the efficacy of technology-enhanced statistics education. Using IRB-approved studies, quantitative and qualitative measures of student performance were recorded in classes using traditional (control) instruction (R or Stata based) and classes using SOCR resources and tools. Non-parametric analyses of the data showed very statistically significant (SOCR) treatment effects (p < 10-4) on student performance and perception of the material. The practical significance of these treatment effects were more modulated. More details about these studies are available here. Summary Main SOCR server, applets Data, activities and EBooks Feedback and Forum Graphical SOCR Navigator

Educational games have had varied success in the past. However, what it means to incorporate games into the classroom has changed dramatically in the last 10 years. The goals of our games are to 1) foster a sense of engagement, 2) have a low threat of failure, 3) allow instructors to create simplified models of the world around us, and 4) motivate students to learn. This webinar will use the same reaction time game to demonstrate a simple 1- 2 day activity that is appropriate for introductory courses as well as an advanced project that encourages students to experience data analysis as it is actually practiced in multiple disciplines. In the introductory activity students are asked to spend 15 minutes playing an on-line game. Data collected from the game is used to demonstrate the importance of proper data collection and appropriate statistical analysis. The advanced project asks students to read primary literature, plan and carry out game based experiments, and present their results.

This year, Jeanne and Bill assumed co-editorship of the Chance News Wiki, which as of March 15 will be moving to CAUSEweb. The Wiki provides reviews of current news stories that are relevant to teaching statistics and probability, along with links to original articles and related resources. This webinar will describe the various ways that Chance project materials have been used, in areas ranging from traditional introductory statistics to statistical literacy courses to first-year seminars. We will also discuss the mechanics of posting to the Wiki, and hope to inspire some new contributors.

This is a CAUSE Special Presentation for USCOTS Research Cluster members.

GOLO is a dice-based golf game that simulates playing a round of golf. GOLO can be used to illustrate basic probability concepts, descriptive summaries for data, discrete probability distributions, order statistics, and game theory. Participants will get a chance to play the online version of GOLO. Participants are asked to pre-register on the GOLO website. Instructions: Go to GOLO website: www.igolo.com Click on Play the Online Version Supply email address and create password

During the past 20 years, undergraduate education has shifted from student as passive recipient of information to student as active participant in the classroom. I wrote an article for Chance magazine's 20th anniversary issue titled, "Using Chance to Engage Undergraduates in the Study of Statistics." The article gave examples of activities inspired by Chance magazine articles from the last 20 years. This webinar will take articles from a recent issue of Chance and demonstrate the ease with which any issue can be used to develop class activities that are fun for high school students and undergraduates whether the course is a basic quantitative literacy course, an AP statistics course, an introductory course for non-statistics majors, or a core or elective course for the statistics major.

This webinar will discuss what it means to understand the concept of standard deviation and share a sequence of activities that can be used to help students develop variability. Particular attention will be paid to one activity that challenges students to work together to consider center and variability together, developing a better understanding of the standard deviation. The activities discussed are accompanied by detailed Lesson Plans, developed through our NSF-funded AIMS project.

A model for probabilistic reasoning will be discussed that may support students' statistical reasoning. The development of the model and instructional implications are based on theoretical considerations and empirical results from work with middle grades students. Significant time for discussion is planned to get reactions to the model as well as to discuss aspects of probability that participants believe are foundational to building statistical literacy or reasoning.

This webinar will describe an activity that uses data collected from an experiment looking at the relationship between two categorical variables: Whether a cotton plant was exposed to spider mites; and did the plant contract Wilt disease? The activity uses randomization to explore whether there is a difference between the occurrence of the disease with and without the mites. The webinar will include a discussion of the learning goals of the activity, followed by an implementation of the activity then suggestions for assessment. The implementation first uses a physical simulation, then a simulation using technology.

In Statistics as in many disciplines, students need to learn about complex concepts and dynamically changing processes. How can instructors help their students begin to "see" these complex topics the way experts do, and are there tools that can help? In this webinar, I will review key findings on how computer visualizations and simulations can best support student learning and then take those findings to generate effective strategies for teaching with simulations and visualizations.