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Volume 2, Number 1 (July 1994) ISSN: 1069-1898
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CONTENTS
AUTHOR & TITLE FILENAME
Masthead, Contents, Abstracts, jse/v2n1/contents
Instructions for retrieving files
Margaret Mackisack, "What Is the Use of jse/v2n1/mackisack
Experiments Conducted by Statistics Students?"
Joan B. Garfield, "Beyond Testing and Grading: jse/v2n1/garfield
Using Assessment to Improve Student Learning"
Mark Ferris and Don Hardaway, "Teacher 2000: jse/v2n1/ferris
A New Tool for Multimedia Teaching of
Introductory Business Statistics"
Stephen Eckert, "Teaching Hypothesis Testing jse/v2n1/eckert
With Playing Cards: A Demonstration"
Nicholas P. Maxwell, "A Coin-Flipping Exercise jse/v2n1/maxwell
to Introduce the P-Value"
TEACHING BITS: A RESOURCE FOR TEACHERS jse/v2n1/resource
OF STATISTICS
DATASETS AND STORIES:
James A. Hanley and Stanley H. Shapiro, jse/v2n1/datasets.hanley
"Sexual Activity and the Lifespan of
Male Fruitflies: A Dataset That Gets
Attention"
Lauren McIntyre, "Using Cigarette jse/v2n1/datasets.mcintyre
Data for an Introduction to Multiple
Regression"
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ABSTRACTS
Margaret Mackisack, "What Is the Use of Experiments Conducted
by Statistics Students?" (50K)
ABSTRACT: This paper describes a situation where systematic
use is being made of data collected by students as part of a
class project and advocates the wider use of such projects.
The immediate learning benefits to the students involved in
carrying out projects have been widely canvassed recently,
and this paper reports some experiences with a particular
type of project. Advantage is also taken of these projects
as a source of material for problem-based learning in
applied statistics at all levels, and some specific reasons
for the potential importance of such material are advanced.
--MM
KEY WORDS: Linear models; Data analysis; Experimental
design; Problem-based learning.
Joan B. Garfield, "Beyond Testing and Grading: Using Assessment
to Improve Student Learning" (35K)
ABSTRACT: Changes in educational assessment are currently
being called for, both within the fields of measurement and
evaluation as well as in disciplines such as statistics.
Traditional forms of assessment of statistical knowledge
provide a method for assigning numerical scores to determine
letter grades but rarely reveal information about how
students actually understand and can reason with statistical
ideas or apply their knowledge to solving statistical
problems. As statistics instruction at the college level
begins to change in response to calls for reform (e.g., Cobb
1992), there is an even greater need for appropriate
assessment methods and materials to measure students'
understanding of probability and statistics and their
ability to achieve more relevant goals, such as being able
to explore data and to think critically using statistical
reasoning. This paper summarizes current trends in
educational assessment and relates these to the assessment
of student outcomes in a statistics course. A framework is
presented for categorizing and developing appropriate
assessment instruments and procedures. --JG
KEY WORDS: Assessment; Testing; Evaluation; Student
learning.
Mark Ferris and Don Hardaway, "Teacher 2000: A New Tool for
Multimedia Teaching of Introductory Business Statistics" (19K)
ABSTRACT: This article explores the use of multimedia in an
introductory business statistics course through a new
computer vehicle called Teacher 2000. Traditional
educational processes are reviewed and reinterpreted in
light of technological advances in computing, video, and
software. These advances provide new opportunities to
educators. To highlight the potential of a multimedia
approach in statistics, an example is developed that
explains how professors and students might interact and use
this new technology. Software developed by one of the
authors is used to showcase multimedia potential. --MF
KEY WORDS: Educational innovation; Computer integrated
instruction; Multimedia software development; Making
Statistics More Effective in Schools of Business.
Stephen Eckert, "Teaching Hypothesis Testing With Playing Cards:
A Demonstration" (8K)
ABSTRACT: In elementary statistics courses, students often
have difficulty understanding the principles of hypothesis
testing. This paper discusses a simple yet effective
demonstration using playing cards. The demonstration has
been very useful in teaching basic concepts of hypothesis
testing, including formulation of a null hypothesis, using
data as evidence against the null hypothesis, and
determining the strength of the evidence against the null
hypothesis, i.e., the p-value. --SE
Nicholas P. Maxwell, "A Coin-Flipping Exercise to Introduce the
P-Value" (12K)
ABSTRACT: The p-value can be introduced with a coin
flipping exercise. The instructor flips a coin ten times
and has a student call each flip. The students record their
thoughts after each flip. The instructor reports that the
caller calls every flip correctly. In this exercise
students intuitively reject a null hypothesis because the
p-value is too small. Students are reassured to learn from
this concrete example that they intuitively followed the
logic of statistical inference before they studied
statistics. --NM
"Teaching Bits: A Resource for Teachers of Statistics" (28K)
ABSTRACT: This column features "bits" of information
sampled from a variety of sources that may be of interest
to teachers of statistics. Joan Garfield abstracts
information from the literature on teaching and learning
statistics, while Laurie Snell summarizes resources from
the news and other media that may be used with students to
provoke discussions or serve as a basis for classroom
activities or student projects. --JG
James A. Hanley and Stanley H. Shapiro, "Sexual Activity and the
Lifespan of Male Fruitflies: A Dataset That Gets Attention" (13K)
ABSTRACT: This dataset contains observations on five groups
of male fruitflies -- 25 fruitflies in each group -- from an
experiment designed to test if increased reproduction
reduces longevity for male fruitflies. (Such a cost has
already been established for females.) The five groups are:
males forced to live alone, males assigned to live with one
or eight interested females, and males assigned to live with
one or eight non-receptive females. The observations on
each fly were longevity, thorax length, and the percentage
of each day spent sleeping. The structure of the experiment
provokes lively discussion on experimental design and on
contrasts, and gives students opportunities to understand
and verbalize what we mean by the term "statistical
interaction." Because the variable thorax length has a
strong effect on survival, it is important to take it into
account to increase the precision of between-group
contrasts, even though it is distributed similarly across
groups. The dataset can also be used to illustrate
techniques of survival analysis. --JH
KEY WORDS: Experiment; Longevity; Analysis of covariance;
Regression; Precision; Survival analysis.
Lauren McIntyre, "Using Cigarette Data for an Introduction to
Multiple Regression" (9K)
ABSTRACT: The CIGARETTE dataset contains measurements of
weight and tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide content for 25
brands of domestic cigarettes. The dataset is useful for
introducing the ideas of multiple regression and provides
examples of an outlier and a pair of collinear variables.
--LM
KEYWORDS: Classroom data; Collinearity; Outlier.
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Editor: E. Jacquelin Dietz
Managing Editor: J. Tim Arnold
Editorial Assistant: Sevanne E. Person
Editors, Teaching Bits: A Resource for Teachers of Statistics:
Joan Garfield
J. Laurie Snell
Editors, Datasets and Stories:
J. Tim Arnold
Robin H. Lock
Editorial Board:
Donald Bentley Eiki Satake
George Cobb Richard L. Scheaffer
Janice Derr Judith Singer
Peter Holmes Henry B. Slotnick
Gudmund Iversen Eric R. Sowey
Thomas Johnson W. Robert Stephenson
Peter A. Lachenbruch William Swallow
James M. Landwehr Jim Swift
David S. Moore Michael J. Symons
Mary Parker John Wasik
Walter R. Pirie Ann E. Watkins
Allen H. Reed Jeffrey Witmer
Thomas Reiland
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