tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81086670377181729372024-02-08T00:18:58.759-06:00Catalysts for ChangeAccelerating the change of content and pedagogy in introductory statisticsCatalysts for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03478285983149782318noreply@blogger.comBlogger105125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8108667037718172937.post-60929979899539652962015-10-31T01:50:00.003-05:002015-10-31T01:57:16.317-05:00StatChat: Halloween Edition, Featuring Anelise SabbagAnother fun, informative, and successful StatChat came and went this past October 27th. Still hosted at Macalester College, there was a full plate on the agenda and full plates with great treats shared among attendees. <br />
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After the always mandatory food, drinks, and socializing, Monica Brown and Joe Roith from St. Kate's presented on St. Kate's new Interdisciplinary Statistics minor. Milo Schield from Augsburg College spoke on problems with introductory statistics courses, as well as initiated discussion about revising the current GAISE recommendations.<br />
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A highlight of the night was a presentation by our own Anelise Sabbag: "A focus on statistical reasoning. What did we learn from the GOALS instrument?" Anelise explored what we are learning about students' statistical reasoning based on field test results from GOALS in Fall 2014. Key points included the most challenging types of questions for students and the learning goals with which they are most struggling.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anelise fearlessly taking over the room with her intellect, energy, and wit!</td></tr>
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Of course it wouldn't be a Halloween StatChat without the famed Stat-O-Lantern! Thanks to Mike Huberty for the spooky, statistical display.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Stat-O-Lantern was the toughest audience member, skeptically judging each presentation and asking the hard questions</td></tr>
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Catalysts for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03478285983149782318noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8108667037718172937.post-59085128300322719032015-10-15T13:41:00.000-05:002015-10-15T13:42:38.972-05:00Congratulations, Dr. Beckman!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Our Stat Ed family is proud to announce that Matt Beckman (now Dr.) successfully defended his dissertation, "Assessment of Cognitive Transfer Outcomes for Students of Introductory Statistics", on Monday, October 12th!</div>
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We are all so proud of and happy for Matt. His story with the Stat Ed family began back in 2009. In his own words:</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>"I moved to MN in fall 2006 and completed my M.S. in the University of Minnesota Statistics Department. I took Michelle Everson's "Becoming a Teacher of Statistics" class in Spring 2008 as an elective in my last semester. She & Joan hired me as adjunct faculty to teach EPSY 5261 for Fall 2008 and Spring 2009, and then told me about the Stat Dd PhD program. So, I enrolled in Fall 2009."</i></span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All smiles! Dr. Beckman and his committee, under the glow of success.</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">We wish Dr. Beckman all of the best as he and his family transition out to the east coast! Matt will soon be starting in his new position in the Penn State University Statistics Department, as the Director of Undergraduate Programs.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Congratulations again, Dr. Beckman! You will be missed, but naturally, your fruitful journey continues.</span></span></div>
Catalysts for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03478285983149782318noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8108667037718172937.post-85688101300384197772015-08-23T13:24:00.003-05:002015-08-23T13:26:43.657-05:00Summer So Far Part 2: USCOTS 2015Late May of this year kicked off summer adventures for more of our stat ed family! Bob delMas and Nicola attended USCOTS 2015 in State College, PA. A successful platter of data gathering, presentations, socializing, and good summer antics was nicely served.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All smiles! Bob, Nicola, and colleague Catherine Case from the University of Florida.</td></tr>
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Conference-wise, Nicola conducted focus groups to collect data for her thesis. She met and had excellent conversations with a variety of graduate teaching assistants, who kindly shared their experiences.</div>
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Bob was active with several presentations and papers. He delivered a three-hour session titled, "Bringing the Statistics Education Research Literature into your Classroom", to community college statistics instructors as part of a USCOTS pre-conference training workshop. The session involved participants reading from and discussing chapters from Garfield & Ben-Zvi's 2008 book, "Developing Students' Statistical Reading: Connecting Research and Teaching Practice." Along with Michael Posner from Villanova, Bob also lead breakout session to help participants start statistics educational research programs and agendas in their respective departments. Finally, Bob contributed two poster presentations. One focused on the STI and GOALS v.2 instruments developed under e-ATLAS, including national data from teachers and students (poster co-authored with Joan Garfield, Andy Zieffler, and Elizabeth Fry). The other presented validity and reliability aspects of the LOCUS assessments using the modified evidence-centered design approach, based on data from 3,430 students in grades 6 through 12 (co-authored with Tim Jacobbe and Douglas Whitaker).</div>
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Amid all of the excellent scholarly work was plenty of fun! Bob and Nicola explored State College, including an important walk for ice cream from a local creamery. Statistics PhD folks from Penn State further served as gracious guests, providing rewarding socializing and taking Bob and Nicola out to dinner. They also spent quality time with stat ed colleague Catherine Case from the Florida LOCUS group.</div>
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The trip was not without some traveling adventures! A poor bird flapped its way into the wrong tree at the airport, as shown below, delaying the flight.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The sad fluff from a feathered friend who flew too well -- leading to an adventurous flight delay.</td></tr>
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To round out the trip, Bob graciously took a moment to show off his harmonica skills with a bluesy and delightful performance!</div>
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All in all, it was a great conference and a fantastic part of this summer!<br />
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<br />Catalysts for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03478285983149782318noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8108667037718172937.post-27891451963356047932015-08-08T00:14:00.001-05:002015-08-08T00:14:10.860-05:00Summer So Far Part 1: College in the SchoolsSummer is in full swing! Among all of the fun summer activities, good time was spent on furthering the partnership, growth, and camaraderie withe teachers in the College in the Schools (CIS) program. During the first week of July, about 25 teachers from schools participating in CIS all over Minnesota visited the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis. Hosted by our Stat Ed family, it provided an excellent opportunity for teachers to meet face-to-face, observe how the CATALST course is implemented, and discuss and share ideas with our Stat Ed faculty and students.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A white board filled with intelligence in the summer CATALST class (EPSY 3264) visited by CIS teachers.</td></tr>
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The days were packed with full agendas. Visiting instructors completed activities from the CATALST curriculum, including the "iPod Shuffle" and "Comparing Airlines" activities. Additionally, they were treated to a full observation of the CATALST course in action, by attending Andy Zieffler's summer EPSY 3264 course, which covered the "Helper/Hinderer" and "Comparing Airlines" activities. Following the class, fruitful discussion and team-building took place. Lastly, instructors completed assessments together, and talked about distinctive CATALST assessment methods, such as holistic grading and group quizzes and exams.<br />
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The bountiful group discussions and interactions throughout the visit spurred a key growth: the development of a Community of Practice, where instructors better got to know each other, as well as many of us here in Stat Ed. Importantly, this included an essential round of sharing fun personal facts!<br />
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As a promising sign at the end of the visit, it was a great joy to see how excited the visiting instructors were about using Tinkerplots. <br />
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All in all, it was a successful week and another great chapter in the partnership with CIS.<br />
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Catalysts for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03478285983149782318noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8108667037718172937.post-73310267822556207742015-04-17T18:59:00.000-05:002015-04-20T14:37:45.924-05:00Congratulations! 2014-15 QME Teaching Award Winner: Elizabeth Fry<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">The QME Teaching Award is given each year to recognize a graduate student in the Quantitative Methods in Education program for excellence in teaching. This award will be presented at the department annual spring pizza party on </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_729307935" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">May 8</span></span><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">.</span></div>
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Stat ed student Elizabeth Fry won this year's award, much to the delight of her stat ed peers and faculty members.</div>
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In Liz's own words:</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Liz at ICOTS-9 this past summer in Arizona</td></tr>
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"<i>I have been teaching in QME for almost 3 years, after having taught for two years in Ohio. My first year teaching in Minnesota, I taught EPSY 3264, otherwise known as the CATALST course. This is an innovative introductory statistics course for undergraduates that teaches the ideas of statistical inference through simulation-based methods. </i></div>
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<i>For the past two years, I have been teaching EPSY 5261, an introductory statistics course for graduate students in various different programs. In this course, I use the Lock et al. (2013) textbook, teaching inference first through bootstrap intervals and randomization tests, and then moving on to learn parametric methods. </i></div>
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<i>This past year, I took on a new challenge: Teaching online for the first time! I enjoy taking a subject that many students initially find intimidating, and showing them how interesting and engaging it truly is through the use of many collaborative activities and group discussion.</i></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"><i>It is an honor to receive this award for something I love doing so much! I have grown tremendously as a teacher during my time in QME, and that is largely thanks to being in a supportive environment with mentors and colleagues who are also passionate about teaching. </i>"</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Congratulations, Liz, on this wonderful, well-deserved award for all of your great efforts, expertise, and teaching passion!</span>Catalysts for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03478285983149782318noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8108667037718172937.post-24549029640344702612015-04-17T18:48:00.001-05:002015-04-20T14:39:44.953-05:00March Workshop: "Teaching Statistical Investigation Process with Simulation and Randomization-Based Inference"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Amid the busy semester, a couple of stat ed students escaped Minnesota's chilly spring to bask in the sunny dryness of Arizona!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Nicola and Anelise joined Cal-Poly colleagues Allan Rossman, Beth Chance, and Soma Roy in presenting at a</span><span style="color: black;"> workshop called "Teaching the Statistical Investigation Process with Simulation and Randomization-Based Inference" at </span><span style="color: black;">Mesa</span><span style="color: black;"> Community College in Arizona on <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_729307928" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">March 6 - 7</span></span>. </span><span style="color: black;"> The workshop included a brief taste of to two curricula: Introduction to Statistical Investigations (ISI; Tintle et al., </span><a href="http://www.math.hope.edu/isi/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://www.math.hope.edu/<wbr></wbr>isi/</a> <span style="color: black;">); and CATALST. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">This was part of a series of free workshops by the ISI team designed to help </span><span style="color: black;">teachers of statistics gain familiarity with</span><span style="color: black;"> randomization-based methods and the process of statistical inference.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">In the brief weekend trip, Anelise and Nicola also managed to explore Arizona State University, enjoy some ice cream on a warm evening, and take a few snapshots.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A happy balloon cactus greeted them in the airport!</td></tr>
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Catalysts for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03478285983149782318noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8108667037718172937.post-13796069205634184312015-03-09T22:46:00.000-05:002015-03-09T22:46:44.844-05:00New (Old) Stat Ed - QME Student: Meet Mike!Hi everyone!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mike Huberty with his family.</td></tr>
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My name is Mike Huberty. Like Jonathan, I am in my first year of the Statistics Education (QME) program at the University of Minnesota. My path to this program has also been an adventure, though my path has been different than Jonathan's. <br />
<br />
I earned by bachelors degree in mathematics and physics from the University of Minnesota in 1991 and got my Masters degree in teaching math and physics from the University of St. Thomas in 1993. I have taught mathematics, statistics, and science to mostly high school students since then – Totino-Grace H.S. in Fridley, MN (1993-1998); Mounds View H.S. in Arden Hills, MN (1998-present); and St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN (2005-2006).<br />
<br />
In 2002, I was the math and science curriculum director for Mounds View Public Schools when I received a brochure for a new course titled "Becoming a Teacher of Statistics." As we were planning to implement A.P. Statistics that fall, I enrolled in that course with two colleagues from our school district. Joan Garfield taught that course and started a connection that continues to this day.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Stat Chat" Stat-O-Lantern, 2014</td></tr>
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Since that time, I kept in contact with Dr. Garfield – from inviting her to observe our high school statistic students' project presentations to attending monthly "Stat Chat" gatherings of college professors interesting in improving introductory statistics. In the fall of 2011, I piloted the CATALST curriculum with high school students, and was impressed by what the students could conceptually understand without the more formal A.P. Statistics training. When I attended the 10th anniversary celebration of the Stat Ed program in the fall of 2012, I decided then that I needed to do what Dr. Garfield has asked me to do for the past ten years – join her PhD program!<br />
<br />
This has been an exciting, and exhausting, year. I am now a full-time student in the Statistics Education program at the University of Minnesota. I am also still teaching part-time at Mounds View H.S. I love teaching! It is a passion! And I can't fully give up my science background as I am still involved with the Science Olympiad program – organizing science competitions for students in grades 2 through 12 and teaching Lego robotics in the summer to kids ages 9-11.<br />
<br />
Nothing in life is better than helping the next generation learn! In fact, it is a privilege.<br />
<br />
:-) MikeAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00225173103868311151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8108667037718172937.post-1467620852822024012015-03-02T00:13:00.003-06:002015-03-02T00:13:34.388-06:00New Stat Ed - QME Student: Meet Jonathan!<div class="MsoNormal">
Hello!<o:p></o:p><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I wish this was my dog. Alas, it is not. I'm a cat guy anyway.</td></tr>
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I’m Jonathan Brown and I’m in my first year of the Stat Ed –
QME program. My path into this program has
been quite an adventure, and I’m very happy to be here!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
Growing up and heading into undergrad, I had aspirations to
figure out the Universe at the most fundamental level, as well as protect the
Earth from potentially apocalyptic asteroids.
Accordingly, I earned a Bachelor of Science from UW-Madison in 2009, majoring
in Astronomy-Physics, with a Business minor.
I conducted astronomy research from 2007-2009, analyzing quasar spectra
in an attempt to characterize hydrogen gas clouds through their interference
with said spectra. I was fortunate to spend a year teaching physics through the Physics Department's Peer-Mentor-Tutor program, providing educational support to first-generation students and students from underrepresented groups enrolled in introductory physics courses.<br />
<br />
While the joy of
cosmology and physics never left me, issues on the social side of science
sparked my interest, and I sought to dive into other aspects of science, other
than the science itself. This included
teaching, policy, and ethical issues.
This lead to me earning a Master of Science in Science and Technology
Policy from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota in
2012, with a Public Health minor. I
focused my attention on nanotechnology policy, and conducted research on the
public perception of nanotechnology in food.
I was additionally a statistics teaching assistant for two half-semester
classes and loved it. <br />
<br />
Following my
Master’s degree, I stayed at the Humphrey School for two years as a research
fellow, working on issues of nanotechnology in food, women’s experiences in
science and technology policy careers, and the impact of university research on
domestic food safety.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />
As I pondered my next steps, I realized that I missed
teaching and had unexplored passions for improving education, specifically,
quantitative education. I began fondly
thinking back to my times teaching physics in undergrad and statistics in my
Master’s program. Following
recommendations from peers, I discovered the Stat Ed group within the QME
program and it struck me like an inspirational lightning bolt that this was where I next
wanted to be. I strongly desired to not
only teach quantitative material, but to make such teaching better and
positively impact students as much as possible.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
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My primary research interest within statistics education is
teaching assistant and instructor development, but I am happy researching
numerous areas, issues, and topics.
Being given the opportunity to teach statistics while conducting and
potentially implementing research to improve statistics education is awesome!<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
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Outside of school and work, my life is filled with two other
activities: fitness and improv. Among
the joys and sanity I derive from fitness and sports, sprinting is my favorite
pastime. I hope to indefinitely compete
in friendly track meets in the 200 meter, 400 meter, and possibly the
mile. I've been training in and doing
improv for over a year, and have enjoyed successes and experiences that I never
could have imagined. I’m currently a
part of one improv group and am hoping to stay indefinitely connected to the
stage. Additionally, as a wonderful externality, my teaching has definitely strengthened due to my improv training and experience. Many improv principles directly apply to teaching of any kind!<o:p></o:p></div>
Catalysts for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03478285983149782318noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8108667037718172937.post-34717201953275521212015-02-01T13:35:00.001-06:002015-02-01T13:35:19.566-06:002015 Joint Mathematics Meetings<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center; width: 400px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwASHAp_y4j0IHxE1iRk_yC5K6E3v1V83uqlLWouLiaKzbBRPfaEAFfUk_OzsrJ6iB281_sZqMFroMqj3SXRXsdHk1sbur70IVwL4VSgBEjrEj9QkgZoVQd5gTiI9cWSTwZZacy_zfD-M/s1600/poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwASHAp_y4j0IHxE1iRk_yC5K6E3v1V83uqlLWouLiaKzbBRPfaEAFfUk_OzsrJ6iB281_sZqMFroMqj3SXRXsdHk1sbur70IVwL4VSgBEjrEj9QkgZoVQd5gTiI9cWSTwZZacy_zfD-M/s1600/poster.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center; width: 400px;"><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Joan Garfield and Elizabeth
Fry: poster-session superstars. They shared their poster about
assessments developed under the NSF e-ATLAS grant.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Two Catalysts
for Change, Joan Garfield and Elizabeth Fry, kicked off the New Year
with a trip to San Antonio, Texas for the Joint Math Meetings. They
arrived before the meetings began, in order to attend a workshop led by
Allan Rossman, Robin Lock, and colleagues to learn about their
approaches to teaching simulation and randomization-based methods in
introductory statistics courses.<span class="im"></span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center; width: 400px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWitPgEk0kBMc-mKya4ebiAzJPFiDLSTOdXej5B-_wiSC_an6AFNW0ZYWbRere584OBXlNlOFHGDxZTunfG0RiWkJVMNvgqw0_NjPVU90ouAPGz47SlYQF2YkA3K3bteYqGuHF-CBxeRE/s1600/presentation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWitPgEk0kBMc-mKya4ebiAzJPFiDLSTOdXej5B-_wiSC_an6AFNW0ZYWbRere584OBXlNlOFHGDxZTunfG0RiWkJVMNvgqw0_NjPVU90ouAPGz47SlYQF2YkA3K3bteYqGuHF-CBxeRE/s1600/presentation.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Elizabeth Fry presenting her
paper and work on the Statistics Teaching Inventory developed under the
NSF e-ATLAS grant, and solidifying her case as the next TedTalk rising
star.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">The fun did not stop there. On January 10, Liz presented a contributed paper, <i>What do we know about best practices in teaching the introductory course? </i>This
presentation showcased the work that has been done on the Statistics
Teaching Inventory, a national survey of statistics instructors,
developed under the NSF e-ATLAS grant. The following day, Joan and Liz
participated in a special poster session for NSF-funded projects, where
they shared more about the assessments developed under the e-ATLAS
project.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center; width: 50%;" valign="bottom"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIU8E-grRHMPT1-j_kcZx_srqn049kd_42pXLuAymDzyL9HMNk-GrVIhBxyQwPXuR6Fq8fqtZ_Rkl-QhzvKRYic24MqyGDKQHQgdeYDBsKJVnDl-9s525ZnYpotBlB0YF6rHxHPOxnPmU/s1600/liz_joan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIU8E-grRHMPT1-j_kcZx_srqn049kd_42pXLuAymDzyL9HMNk-GrVIhBxyQwPXuR6Fq8fqtZ_Rkl-QhzvKRYic24MqyGDKQHQgdeYDBsKJVnDl-9s525ZnYpotBlB0YF6rHxHPOxnPmU/s1600/liz_joan.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 50%;" valign="bottom"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQdg6YxmW5u_6ptD76BWCqWBk_ZO3bamFuHr_Ox33hVOaRhM9sM-dTZY8ReBMHm8ofFRhQgyfVxthUdQP6sDOzaq5F5V4ygLCzJYrwFibX0U9zA_1v0tzpFcFOvGd3AM7ASxOpw3XppBg/s1600/riverwalk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQdg6YxmW5u_6ptD76BWCqWBk_ZO3bamFuHr_Ox33hVOaRhM9sM-dTZY8ReBMHm8ofFRhQgyfVxthUdQP6sDOzaq5F5V4ygLCzJYrwFibX0U9zA_1v0tzpFcFOvGd3AM7ASxOpw3XppBg/s1600/riverwalk.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center; width: 50%;" valign="top"><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">In addition to bringing
statistics education research and expertise, Elizabeth Fry and Joan
Garfield brought a little midwestern winter to San Antonio.
Temperatures were a tad chillier than expected for local residents.</span></td>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center; width: 50%;" valign="top"><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Beautiful elements along the
San Antonio River Walk, providing the rare sight for Minnesotans of an
unfrozen body of water in winter.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Despite
record cold temperatures for San Antonio (which felt balmy compared to
temperatures in Minnesota), Liz and Joan spent plenty of time outside
walking around, exploring the Riverwalk, and taking advantage of some of
the finest dining that the city has to offer. They particularly enjoyed
excellent food and company one evening at Citrus restaurant together
with John Holcomb and Nick Horton.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center; width: 400px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggaQPrYvZPESKv5S2Jt_IHvhYDNXPuy0M_14CeB8L-Gh3bDnlRcUR91b4w7YKSFSXxKScpu_jo-camDhCdlZ1cx5oLggxgWS1FpZ_Zs22tOrjhW1ewztnVLb0EJBw_JstN7FZd6NQ8q3k/s1600/dinner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggaQPrYvZPESKv5S2Jt_IHvhYDNXPuy0M_14CeB8L-Gh3bDnlRcUR91b4w7YKSFSXxKScpu_jo-camDhCdlZ1cx5oLggxgWS1FpZ_Zs22tOrjhW1ewztnVLb0EJBw_JstN7FZd6NQ8q3k/s1600/dinner.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center; width: 400px;"><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Joan Garfield, Elizabeth Fry,
John Holcomb, and Nick Horton taking time to replenish at Citrus
restaurant. It is ill-advised to talk about statistics without
sufficient food and beverage.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00225173103868311151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8108667037718172937.post-71067858079172560872014-08-12T18:47:00.002-05:002014-08-12T18:47:48.379-05:00Reflections from the ICOTS Conference: Two Worlds<style>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><i>Ane's Reflections:</i></span><br />
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><i> </i> </span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">After finishing my Master’s degree at the University of Minnesota, I went
back to Brazil and since then I have been between two “worlds”: the world of U.S.,
with all I learned about statistics education, and the world of Brazil, where
statistics education is still growing. It has been a challenge to unite both
worlds; however, at ICOTS these two worlds got together very smoothly. I had the
chance to meet some professors from all parts of Brazil who were interested in
statistics education. Through their work I could see some of what is being done
is Brazil. I had the chance to see Claudia Borim present about developing school
mathematics teachers’ reasoning about variation. I also saw other presentations
about critical statistics education from Celso Campos and students’ experiences
with an online exercise from <a href="http://eaesp.fgvsp.br/en/docentes/andr%C3%A9.samartini">Andre Samartini</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Assessment development is an area of great interest of mine, so I was
excited to see all the work that has been done in developing new assessments in
the US. I very much enjoyed the sessions about the LOCUS assessment presented
by <a href="http://education.ufl.edu/locus/">Tim Jacobbe and Douglas Whitaker (University of Florida)</a>. I also had a great
time hearing from my colleagues at the University of Minnesota: Robert delMas presented
on the CAOS instrument and Laura Ziegler presented on the BLIS assessment. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">However, ICOTS and statistics education goes beyond the US and Brazil. I
had a chance to meet some renowned researchers such as <a href="http://scholar.google.es/citations?user=CbJazy4AAAAJ&hl=es">Carmen Batanero</a> from
Spain. In addition, I was very interested in a presentation from <a href="http://www.unifi.it/p-doc2-2013-200049-P-3f2a3d30382e2b.html">Caterina Primi</a>
(Italy) about using Item Response Theory to construct a scale to measure basic
probabilistic reasoning skills.</span><br />
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">All the fun I had at ICOTS and everything I learned would not have been
possible without the funding I got. So thank you Joan Garfield and the <a href="http://iase-web.org/">IASE</a> for
the financial help. :)</span></div>
Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00623078431855227482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8108667037718172937.post-40543205541301020462014-08-01T14:15:00.000-05:002014-08-01T14:15:34.914-05:00Reflections from the ICOTS Conference: My First ICOTS Experience<i>Reflections from Liz</i><br />
<i> </i> <br />
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On the Wednesday of ICOTS, Ethan and I got to visit the Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument. While hiking near the volcano, I was amazed at the beautiful scenery all around, and the gorgeous views I got from every angle! At one point during the hike, Ethan picked up a rock and pointed out how interesting it looked up close (see the top left frame of my photo). When I shifted my perspective from looking far away to looking at things up close, I noticed the small details and intricacies of the scenery around me, such as the tree trunk that also appears in my photo. Although the “big picture” of the scenery was gorgeous to look at, I was slower to notice the additional beauty to be seen in the details up close!<br />
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Going into the conference, I think my perspective went the other way around: I was focused on the details, asking questions like: <i>What details of the work I did for my 90-page pre-dissertation do I share for my 15-minute contributed talk? What individual presentations am I interested in attending?</i> The first couple of days, I got caught up in the details of how I could “session-hop” from talk to talk in order to catch as many of the presentations as possible that I wanted to see. I ended up missing portions of the presentations I planned on seeing. So later on, I tried the “big picture” approach, asking: <i>What session themes are most interesting to me? What major topics do I want to learn about?</i><br />
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Going to entire sessions helped me to see the bigger ideas and themes that connect the work of researchers and scholars around the world. One presentation I enjoyed was given by Douglas Whitaker from the Florida <a href="http://education.ufl.edu/locus/" target="_blank">LOCUS</a> group. In his talk, he had a slide of various assessments that have been developed in statistics education, including the GOALS assessment that our <a href="http://www.tc.umn.edu/~eatlas/" target="_blank">e-ATLAS</a> team has been working on. The slide gave me a way to visualize how this assessment fits into a larger framework, and reminded me that there are various other people at different places who share the interest of developing good assessments.<br />
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I enjoyed not only meeting new people, but reconnecting with colleagues I already knew, including the <a href="http://www.srtl.info/">SRTL</a> friends I had met one year earlier! It was exciting to hear from many colleagues I already knew about how their research has continued to progress, not only during their presentations but also in informal conversations over meals and snacks. One invited session I enjoyed involved research by Susanne Podworny, Janet Ainley, Keren Aridor-Berger and colleagues on technology-enhanced learning environments. At this session, it was very interesting to learn more about the big picture of students’ learning trajectories while they used technology to reason about uncertainty, as well as the details of their reasoning as shown in several excepts of students’ dialogue.<br />
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ICOTS reminded me of the importance of collaboration, communication, and being aware of what statistics education colleagues around the world are doing. While the details of our own work are important, it is also essential to step back and look at how our work fits into a larger context. We are not alone—there are many, many others who share the goal of improving the grand landscape of statistics education!Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00623078431855227482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8108667037718172937.post-65089027718333878342014-07-31T07:55:00.000-05:002014-07-31T07:55:21.595-05:00Reflections from the ICOTS Conference: The Collective Fight for Statistics ducation<i>Nicola's reflections on ICOTS-9 </i><br />
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The ICOTS conference was full of delightful encounters with colleagues we respect and also dearly love. How fun to jump and dance in circles with Dani Ben-Zvi when he became excited that it was time to take a photo together! ICOTS also presented opportunities for going "deeper" with folks we may or may not have engaged with much with before. I feel particularly lucky to have discussed teaching with Sandy Madden for a couple hours; her thoughtful, research-based approach to teaching blew my mind!<br />
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A profound moment occurred for me during the panel session on GTA development. When Patti Frazer Lock and Kari Lock Morgan each referred to my talk from a few days earlier, I realized that our work is meaningful not only to us, but also to others. More importantly, it is encouraging to realize that there are other statistics educators interested in our work. In short, this reminded me that we are contributing to a collective fight for better statistics education. The key word is <i>collective</i>. <br />
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This illustrates my biggest take-away from ICOTS: we are not alone. ICOTS helps us realize there are other statistics education researchers who are working around the world: in assessment at the K–12 levels (e.g. t<a href="http://education.ufl.edu/locus/">he Florida LOCUS group</a>); in creating innovative documents to inform K–12 education (e.g. <a href="http://project-set.com/">the SET document</a> writers); in grappling with their national standards for statistics, many of which are embedded in math and science (e.g. Jane Watson). And as the discipline grows, statistics educators all across the world (e.g. South Africa, England, and here at home...) are faced with challenges for teacher development.<br />
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As we engage in our statistics education endeavors, ICOTS is a great chance to remember that we are not alone. We have many collaborators who are also joining in the collective fight to improve statistics education around the world. Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00623078431855227482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8108667037718172937.post-75597674037359642752014-07-16T11:47:00.004-05:002014-07-16T11:47:53.282-05:00ICOTS 2014: Part IMany of the Catalysts for Change are at the 9th International Conference on Teaching Statistics (ICOTS) taking place in Flagstaff, Arizona. So far there have been an abundance of thought-provoking sessions and several of our graduate students have had an opportunity to present research that they have been working on over the past year.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ethan Brown captivates himself and the audience with some compelling work on students' response patterns to assessment items related to sample size and inference.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuKZ_MEfv3wxOHasnQeIefXDoCul4bWytaBai2xzrN0i-b9SDHiGLBc7wQzglCfQItAG_Rl4aPhKxDO7npx6ccNkxqmxQn1ltZJ7-kP1e18HLdgLkNYZEJxYyCeJcVRTiUWm5HKN-5P_9c/s1600/photo+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuKZ_MEfv3wxOHasnQeIefXDoCul4bWytaBai2xzrN0i-b9SDHiGLBc7wQzglCfQItAG_Rl4aPhKxDO7npx6ccNkxqmxQn1ltZJ7-kP1e18HLdgLkNYZEJxYyCeJcVRTiUWm5HKN-5P_9c/s1600/photo+2.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anelise Sabbag shares her work examining the psychometric properties of the GOALS assessment using IRT. </td></tr>
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Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00623078431855227482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8108667037718172937.post-75821195940726075292014-05-24T10:23:00.000-05:002014-05-24T10:23:08.637-05:00iPod Shuffle Activity wins Peter Holmes Prize<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg69d7oAH_NohTxv1YrPq_JamsvL63zGpA8p-xVCZymoR3yQjnKF0yx7AnkLSHCsfWguaJ7HmnIoMTr6ErCiVKM8ATdiAaswzl-b_JUKtEqEPr2Rxs0ZRb0YxDsBHOsKMeqFrqVda2YgAih/s1600/Fig2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg69d7oAH_NohTxv1YrPq_JamsvL63zGpA8p-xVCZymoR3yQjnKF0yx7AnkLSHCsfWguaJ7HmnIoMTr6ErCiVKM8ATdiAaswzl-b_JUKtEqEPr2Rxs0ZRb0YxDsBHOsKMeqFrqVda2YgAih/s320/Fig2.png" height="400" width="237" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The setup of the iPod Shuffle activity</td></tr>
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Last year, Catalysts Laura Ziegler (Ph.D. candidate) and Joan Garfield published an <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9639.2012.00531.x/abstract">article in <i>Teaching Statistics</i></a> about on the iPod Shuffle activity from the <a href="http://www.tc.umn.edu/~catalst/">CATALST introductory statistics curriculum</a>. We are excited to announce that this article has just won the <a href="http://www.statisticsviews.com/details/news/6141281/Winner-of-2013-Peter-Holmes-Prize-announced.html">2013 Peter Holmes Prize</a>, which is given to the best classroom idea published in <i>Teaching Statistics</i> that year!<br />
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Peter writes, "I particularly liked the context of the iPod shuffle, but even more the nature of the student activity where they had to write their report giving their three 'rules'."<br />
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You can read an overview of the activity in <a href="http://catalystsumn.blogspot.com/2013/02/building-logic-of-statistical-inference.html">our previous blog post</a>, or see <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9639.2012.00531.x/abstract">the full article in </a><i><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9639.2012.00531.x/abstract">Teaching Statistics</a>.</i>Catalysts for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03478285983149782318noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8108667037718172937.post-7461431003516980072014-03-21T09:41:00.001-05:002014-03-21T09:41:10.893-05:00Dr. Everson speaks to ASA Twin Cities about 10 years teaching statistics online <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Yesterday's meeting of the American Statistical Association, Twin Cities Chapter was focused on a subject very dear to us Catalysts: statistics education! Milo Schield of Augsburg College opened the evening by discussing "Two Big Ideas for Teaching Big Data", reflecting on the importance of causation and confounding especially in a world of data-driven decision making where the data is observational, and every association is "statistically significant."<br />
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Our Michelle Everson then spoke about the lessons she's learned from her ten years of online statistics instruction. How do you foster active learning in the online classroom? How do you keep the work manageable? How involved should you be in discussion? As someone constantly experimenting and critiquing her own techniques, Dr. Everson didn't present final answers to these questions, but she did share her accumulated wisdom from her online journey:<br />
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<iframe src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/32581656" width="427" height="356" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" style="border:1px solid #CCC; border-width:1px 1px 0; margin-bottom:5px; max-width: 100%;" allowfullscreen> </iframe> <div style="margin-bottom:5px"> <strong> <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/statisfactions/asa-talk-onlineteaching" title="Top Ten Things Learned From Ten Years of Online Statistics Teaching (Michelle Everson)" target="_blank">Top Ten Things Learned From Ten Years of Online Statistics Teaching (Michelle Everson)</a> </strong> </div>
<br />Catalysts for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03478285983149782318noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8108667037718172937.post-3311855868334530022014-01-21T08:26:00.003-06:002014-01-21T08:26:43.640-06:00Joint Mathematics MeetingsNicola Parker and Andy Zieffler went to Baltimore, MD to participate in the Joint Mathematics Meetings on January 15–18, 2014. <div>
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Besides attending the Joint Meetings, they also gave a 4-hour minicourse on the CATALST course. The minicourse included 14 enthusiastic participants from colleges and universities across the country (and even a high school teacher!). Even though the second-half of the minicourse took place on Saturday afternoon—the last day of the conference—all of the participants came back, and we even gained a participant. We think it was quite a success and have been invited to return and repeat it again next year at the 2015 Joint Meetings in San Antonio!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nicola mesmorizes the minicourse participants with TinkerPlots.</td></tr>
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The meetings were well attended and included a Contributed Paper Session sponsored by the Statistics Education SIGMAAA—<i><a href="http://jointmathematicsmeetings.org/meetings/national/jmm2014/2160_program_friday.html">Data, Modeling, and Computing in the Introductory Statistics Course</a></i>. Catherine Case and Melanie Battle gave a nice talk, <i><a href="http://jointmathematicsmeetings.org/amsmtgs/2160_abstracts/1096-d5-849.pdf">Toward a Conceptual Understanding of P-values: The Advantages and Challenges of Randomization-Based Inference</a></i>, which referenced some of the research that has come out of the CATALST project. In addition, Nick Horton's talk, <i><a href="http://jointmathematicsmeetings.org/amsmtgs/2160_abstracts/1096-d5-1770.pdf">Big Data in the Intro Stats Class: Use of the Airline Delays Dataset to Expose Students to a Real-World, Complex Dataset</a></i>, also gave a plug for CATALST, making use of the Comparing Airlines MEA that is the initial activity in Unit 2 of the<a href="https://github.com/zief0002/Statistical-Thinking"> CATALST book</a>.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwdkFzqRqQ_SXnOAVoi_34iYdwPYLE-_gKKcqHeCrVrA9ATwnjwCZQDXS72iDvsLwshkFKJ3btZgiZGkhW9ipyeng7Xn62PO2qC01JH0KgjJDcHiVldH-ubzIiCcriV18OvAYOw-rFRBA2/s1600/IMG_0804.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwdkFzqRqQ_SXnOAVoi_34iYdwPYLE-_gKKcqHeCrVrA9ATwnjwCZQDXS72iDvsLwshkFKJ3btZgiZGkhW9ipyeng7Xn62PO2qC01JH0KgjJDcHiVldH-ubzIiCcriV18OvAYOw-rFRBA2/s1600/IMG_0804.JPG" height="150" width="200" /> </a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9R65fe1lVgybhxJjM_8_07p9UKuhzmhF-SiOk07OVs1lNzV5KTHstdC4hNwvbY7ZmEhlOGXjuHiN95wZES2vSBOrRv6p4h7krcPrDA7up99GQG8RgCfwiig6IeijMWys8JDX01JG7wK6i/s1600/IMG_0805.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9R65fe1lVgybhxJjM_8_07p9UKuhzmhF-SiOk07OVs1lNzV5KTHstdC4hNwvbY7ZmEhlOGXjuHiN95wZES2vSBOrRv6p4h7krcPrDA7up99GQG8RgCfwiig6IeijMWys8JDX01JG7wK6i/s1600/IMG_0805.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Catherine Case and Melanie Battle, graduate students at the University of Florida, gave a nice talk on students' understanding of <i>p-</i>value when implementing randomization methods in introductory statistics courses and referenced CATALST.</span></div>
<div>
</div>
</div>
Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00623078431855227482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8108667037718172937.post-42898227226092859182014-01-21T07:55:00.003-06:002014-01-21T07:55:42.775-06:00HHMI Curricular Collaborations MeetingOn January 13–15, 2014, Laura Le, Laura Ziegler, and Andy Zieffler participated in the <i>HHMI Curricular Collaborations</i> meeting that took place at the Howard Hughes Medical Initiative center in Chevy Chase, MD. The meeting included HHMI grant awardees whose grant focus was on curricular innovation through multi-institution collaboration.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVR6aqeDqo8bm4hNsZTW11yzl6N7HM1Z0dI5qtKCWOlJT7mVqV5oHFcsN9KSaKk9Ous0-oboYiSRInAYOxh4-3Iqt_EEEq_7vgIEDAvlncAdcCsldDCwdQYMsXFTlpgr5XIQZMZRPr4k68/s1600/IMG_0784.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVR6aqeDqo8bm4hNsZTW11yzl6N7HM1Z0dI5qtKCWOlJT7mVqV5oHFcsN9KSaKk9Ous0-oboYiSRInAYOxh4-3Iqt_EEEq_7vgIEDAvlncAdcCsldDCwdQYMsXFTlpgr5XIQZMZRPr4k68/s1600/IMG_0784.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Laura and Laura "re-sample" poses from the Harmon Trophy which was awarded to Howard Hughes in 1936 and 1938 as the world's most outstanding aviator.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Our work is building and evaluating an assessment of quantitative skills and reasoning for biology students. This work started in June, 2013 when science educator/researchers from several liberal arts colleges—the grant includes Bryn Maar, Claremont McKenna, Emory, Harvey Mudd, Lewis & Clark, Macalester, Morehouse, Oberlin, and St. Olaf—gathered to brainstorm in Portland, OR. The conversations in Portland led to an initial version of an instrument that was piloted at many of these schools.<br />
<br />
This meeting we spent several more hours refining both our vision/goal for the instrument. Pilot results were used to also help further flesh out the instrument. Next steps include making revisions and a second piloting.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg7OQl9sQldz5Ot6thR_N4txO0D5Q94w7wQSAejgdhjsnnld6USDE7DVpSe-wwMqtF_EpprJtKOgn-ykA9a-iCu2UuScKHA8ETCWbqnF1oDkzL5vn44lDQj23TYewPZzmD5imdOE_zdboI/s1600/IMG_0790.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg7OQl9sQldz5Ot6thR_N4txO0D5Q94w7wQSAejgdhjsnnld6USDE7DVpSe-wwMqtF_EpprJtKOgn-ykA9a-iCu2UuScKHA8ETCWbqnF1oDkzL5vn44lDQj23TYewPZzmD5imdOE_zdboI/s1600/IMG_0790.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We had several speakers and learned about many different projects throughout the meetings, including learning about the new MCAT, which will be administered starting in 2016.</td></tr>
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<br />Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00623078431855227482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8108667037718172937.post-56119863245201232852013-12-09T13:54:00.000-06:002013-12-09T13:54:02.179-06:00Omnipresent variation in visions of the future introductory statistics textbook<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLFHXnmA8juf0xRIVQvEBcsTk5Y6JQ48KOvNMBTkLSjYxRtBcqG-ln20SJqNbwrNU1O0GC18Rr8Gv8grLh6RnU0iSClU4s7iqOqXmESUC3HgEAiEgKk9B51HplyEhqUWcp5doOJxF2cygN/s1600/Blog-text-montage.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLFHXnmA8juf0xRIVQvEBcsTk5Y6JQ48KOvNMBTkLSjYxRtBcqG-ln20SJqNbwrNU1O0GC18Rr8Gv8grLh6RnU0iSClU4s7iqOqXmESUC3HgEAiEgKk9B51HplyEhqUWcp5doOJxF2cygN/s640/Blog-text-montage.png" width="640" /></a></div>
The <a href="http://escholarship.org/uc/uclastat_cts_tise">latest issue</a>
of <i>Technology Innovations of Statistics Education</i>, edited by Rob Gould
of the University of California at Los Angeles, presents three very
distinct visions of the the possibilities for a future statistics
textbook. These articles are based on a session organized by Joan
Garfield at the 2011 Joint Statistical Meetings, in Miami, Florda.<br />
<br />
Three members of the CATALST team—Andrew Zieffler, Rebekah
Isaak, and Joan Garfield—discuss the role of textbook in
developing an introductory undergraduate course based on using
simulation, randomization, and the bootstrap to develop the core logic
of inference.
<br />
<br />
The innovation is primarily pedagogical. Zieffler et al. discuss how they found that having
a unified, structured document to be very useful in supporting
students' learning in an activity-based, student-centered course. The
latest version of the textbook is <a href="https://github.com/zief0002/Statistical-Thinking">available for free</a> from <a href="http://catalystsumn.blogspot.com/p/catalyst-press.html">Catalyst Press</a> under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/">Creative Commons</a> license which allows modification and incorporation of the material in for-profit works. (See our <a href="http://catalystsumn.blogspot.com/2013/09/free-bookstatistical-thinking.html">previous post</a>
on this book). The article discusses future plans for further
innovations to the book such as incorporating videos directly into an
e-book.
<br />
<br />
Cetinkaya-Rundel, Diez, and Barr also present a free product, <a href="http://www.openintro.org/stat/">OpenIntro Statistics</a>,
which is totally open source (the source code is fully available for
modification). Their approach is based on a normal-theory based
approach to the introductory course, chosen to encourage wide adoption,
and the authors discuss the advantage inherent in having such a
radically open process for development.
<br />
<br />
Webster West of North Carolina State University presents a vision that
is more technologically intensive, including algorithmically generated
exercises and tight integration of the textbook with the course
management system and analysis software. His experiences partnering with
Pearson Education and developing <a href="http://www.statcrunch.com/">StatCrunch</a>
speak to how one might integrate technology with widely used,
mainstream textbooks (though he describes himself as "closet radical").
<br />
<br />
The <a href="http://escholarship.org/uc/uclastat_cts_tise?volume=7;issue=3">whole issue</a>
is well worth reading, because it features some lively and skeptical
comments representing conflicting opinions from statistics education
luminaries Beth Chance and Allan Rossman, George Cobb, Paul Velleman,
and Jessica Utts, followed by responses from the authors.Catalysts for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03478285983149782318noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8108667037718172937.post-45576309925003238662013-10-10T22:39:00.000-05:002013-10-10T22:39:43.057-05:00Social Media and Statistics Education<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf_i7ArnwgQA4gPokGuJbaqyNiHixfCjSK_38gM5LBeCygukEE3oLcQf1eUSPRny6X85sZ-VYpNS9oUhtdpC3JXcPccD0NKAZSGiD_SG7i6fRfsZ7szKT8s9x4BnSouv6oD9uWBwfoSTmY/s1600/Everson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf_i7ArnwgQA4gPokGuJbaqyNiHixfCjSK_38gM5LBeCygukEE3oLcQf1eUSPRny6X85sZ-VYpNS9oUhtdpC3JXcPccD0NKAZSGiD_SG7i6fRfsZ7szKT8s9x4BnSouv6oD9uWBwfoSTmY/s320/Everson.jpg" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr. Michelle Everson is helping to catalyze new directions in statistics education through social media and the online classroom.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter provide not only distractions, but also great opportunities. Building on her work in online classrooms and her teaching experiments that incorporate social media, the University of Minnesota's Michelle Everson provides some tips and resources for using social media to teach some resources in <a href="http://magazine.amstat.org/blog/2013/09/01/socialmediaclassroom/">the latest AMSTAT News</a>. She candidly shares both the successes and failures that she's experienced using these approaches.<br />
<br />
For a deeper dive, Michelle has also recently published an <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563212003755">overview of the pedagogy of social media</a> in the latest issue of <i>Computers and Human Behavior</i>, with coauthors Ellen Gundlach of Purdue University, and Jaqueline Miller of Ohio State University. Entering the maelstrom of social media is a bit easier with these thoughtful and seasoned teachers to guide you!Catalysts for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03478285983149782318noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8108667037718172937.post-80425962396245653342013-09-23T16:33:00.001-05:002013-09-23T16:33:17.904-05:00SRTL-8: Great Discussions by a Great Lake<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.08in;">
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<span style="color: navy;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-AU"><br /></span></span></span></span>
<span style="color: navy;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-AU"><br /></span></span></span></span>
<span style="color: navy;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-AU">Great
statistics education thinkers from around the world came to sleepy
Two Harbors, Minnesota for a week of discussion, debate, and
reflection on the great issues in our field. </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-AU">The
theme of th</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-AU">e
Eighth </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-AU">Forum
of the International Collaboration for Research on Statistical
Reasoning Thinking and Literacy (SRTL-8) was</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB"><b>:
</b></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB"><i>Reasoning
about uncertainty in the context of making informal statistical
inferences</i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-AU">.
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-AU">Our
explorations of students' reasoning about uncertainty included many
videos of students working through problems, and we explored the
process of informal inferences qualitatively and quantitatively among
K–12 and undergraduate students and teachers.</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.08in;">
<span style="color: navy;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-AU">Twenty-four
international delegates attended the week-long event from nine
countries across the globe: Australia, Colombia, Germany, Israel, the
Netherlands, New Zealand, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United
States. The Forum provided the group of scholars with an opportunity
for dedicated discussion and debate of the theme, stimulated by
in-depth presentations and informal sharing of projects. A distinctive feature of SRTL's format is the emphasis on reflection and group discussion: a conference on student learning that is set up to foster deeper participant engagement and open-ended exploration than is usually available at lecture-oriented conferences.</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.08in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="en-AU">Follow-up
events are to include </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="en-AU">a
book based on the scientific program, published through Catalyst
Press, </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="en-AU">informal gatherings at other upcoming </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="en-AU">s</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="en-AU">tatistics
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="en-AU">e</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="en-AU">ducation
meetings, and ongoing research
collaborations among many of the delegates. Plans are already
underway for the next meeting (SRTL-9) in Germany in 2015.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.08in;">
<span style="color: navy;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-AU">The
Forum was sponsored by The University of Minnesota, the Statistics
Education Section of the American Statistical Association, Springer
Publications, and Alakef Coffee Roasters. </span></span></span></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.08in;">
<span style="color: navy;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-AU">Joan
Garfield and Elizabeth Fry from The University of Minnesota led the
local planning and organizing prior to the SRTL-8 gathering, supported
by Bob delMas (University of Minnesota) and Dani Ben-Zvi (University of Haifa, Israel), who
ensured that the forum ran smoothly. Thanks to the efforts of the
local organizers, participants were able to not only enjoy each
other’s creative efforts during the scientific program but also to
appreciate the local culture and natur</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-AU">al</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-AU">
beauty of Minnesota’s north shore!</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: navy;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-AU"><br /></span></span></span></span>
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<span style="color: navy;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-AU"><br /></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" lang="en-AU" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" lang="en-AU" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><b>For
further information please contact the SRTL co-chairs:</b></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="en-AU">Joan
Garfield, </span></span><span style="color: blue;"><u><a href="mailto:jbg@umn.edu"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="en-AU">jbg@umn.edu</span></span></a></u></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="en-AU">
</span></span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="en-AU">Dani
Ben-Zvi, </span></span><span style="color: blue;"><u><a href="mailto:dbenzvi@univ.haifa.ac.il"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="en-AU">dbenzvi@univ.haifa.ac.il</span></span></a></u></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><u><a href="mailto:dbenzvi@univ.haifa.ac.il"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="en-AU"><br /></span></span></a></u></span></div>
<h2>
Scientific Program</h2>
<table border="1">
<tbody>
<tr><td>George Cobb</td><td><b>Statistician's address:</b><i> Reasoning about uncertainty: why our tensions are essential</i></td></tr>
<tr><td>Cliff Konold</td><td><i>Using data and chance to make conclusions </i></td></tr>
<tr><td>Hana Manor Braham, Dani Ben-Zvi</td><td><i>Students' reasoning about uncertainty while exploring sampling distributions in an "Integrated Approach"</i></td></tr>
<tr><td>Arthur Bakker, Dani Ben-Zvi, Katie Makar</td><td><i>Reducing uncertainty in a hospital laboratory: A vocational student's web of reasons and actions involved in making a statistical inference</i></td></tr>
<tr><td>Janet Ainley, Dani Ben-Zvi, Hana Manor Braham, Dave Pratt:</td><td><i>Children's expressions of uncertainty in statistical modelling</i></td></tr>
<tr><td>Rob Gould</td><td><i>Teaching data handling</i></td></tr>
<tr><td>Rolf Biehler, Daniel Frischemeier, Susanne Podworny</td><td><i>Preservice teachers' reasoning about uncertainty in the context of randomization tests</i></td></tr>
<tr><td>Luca Zapata</td><td><i>Promoting the development of teachers' ideas of uncertainty</i></td></tr>
<tr><td>Sandra Madden</td><td><i>Constructing simulations and interrogating empirical sampling distributions supports teachers' reasoning in the presence of uncertainty</i></td></tr>
<tr><td>Pip Arnold, Stephanie Budgett, Maxine Pfannkuch</td><td><i>Experiment-to-causation inference: The emergence of new considerations regarding uncertainty</i></td></tr>
<tr><td>Robert delMas & Ethan Brown</td><td><i>Students' emerging reasoning with uncertainty in a randomization-based first course in statistics at the tertiary level</i></td></tr>
<tr><td>Jennifer Noll</td><td><i>Facilitating students' Reasoning about uncertainty in the context of making informal inferences: the role of curriculum and technology</i></td></tr>
<tr><td>Jill Fielding-Wells, Katie Makar</td><td><i>Inferring to a model: Using inquiry-based argumentation to challenge young children's expectations of equally likely outcomes </i></td></tr>
<tr><td>Sibel Kazak</td><td><i>"How confident are you?" Supporting young students' reasoning about uncertainty in chance games through students' talk and computer simulations</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />Catalysts for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03478285983149782318noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8108667037718172937.post-20028359927111598702013-09-04T10:42:00.002-05:002013-09-04T10:43:24.661-05:00Free Book—Statistical Thinking: A Simulation Approach to Modeling Uncertainty<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX8p4idYUY33yB1gyUArAQqKA4PLwaXccz_rBMSChNY098rP8HZEu_wthJr79lH07Xr67VIUr25ANOWPoPxzcf1qmW7WXfEkg2xauJvUVyp3TY30CeuHNSUtwPiIWpQGZ2mVqPhZM8O8eB/s1600/CATALST-Textbook-Cover-v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="494" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX8p4idYUY33yB1gyUArAQqKA4PLwaXccz_rBMSChNY098rP8HZEu_wthJr79lH07Xr67VIUr25ANOWPoPxzcf1qmW7WXfEkg2xauJvUVyp3TY30CeuHNSUtwPiIWpQGZ2mVqPhZM8O8eB/s640/CATALST-Textbook-Cover-v2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<i>(cross-posted from <a href="http://citizen-statistician.org/2013/08/21/free-book-statistical-thinking-a-simulation-approach-to-modeling-uncertainty/">Citizen Statistician</a>)</i><br />
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<br />
Catalyst Press has just released the second edition of the book <a href="https://github.com/zief0002/Statistical-Thinking"><em>Statistical Thinking: A Simulation Approach to Modeling Uncertainty</em></a>. The material in the book is based on work related to the NSF-funded <a href="http://www.tc.umn.edu/~catalst/">CATALST Project</a> (DUE-0814433).
It makes exclusive use of simulation to carry out inferential analyses.
The material also builds on best practices and materials developed in
statistics education, research and theory from cognitive science, as
well as materials and methods that are successfully achieving parallel
goals in other disciplines (e.g., mathematics and engineering
education).<br />
<br />
The materials in the book help students:<br />
<ul>
<li>Build a foundation for statistical thinking through immersion in real world problems and data</li>
<li>Develop an appreciation for the use of data as evidence</li>
<li>Use simulation to address questions involving statistical inference including randomization tests and bootstrap intervals</li>
<li>Model and simulate data using <a href="https://www.keycurriculum.com/products/tinkerplots">TinkerPlots™ software</a></li>
</ul>
Why a cook on a statistics book? It is symbolic of a metaphor
introduced by Alan Schoenfeld (1998) that posits many introductory
(statistics) classes teach students how to follow “recipes”, but not how
to really “cook.” That is, even if students leave a class able to
perform routine procedures and tests, they do not have the big picture
of the statistical process that will allow them to solve unfamiliar
problems and to articulate and apply their understanding. Someone who
knows how to cook knows the essential things to look for and focus on,
and how to make adjustments on the fly. The materials in this book were
intended to help teach students to “cook” (i.e., do statistics and think
statistically).<br />
<br />
The book is licensed under Creative Commons and is freely available on <a href="https://github.com/zief0002/Statistical-Thinking">gitHub</a>. If physical copies of the book are preferred, those are available for $45 at <a href="https://www.createspace.com/3970536">CreateSpace</a> (or Amazon) in full color. All royalties from the book are donated to the <a href="http://www.cehd.umn.edu/edpsych/">Educational Psychology</a> department at the University of Minnesota.Catalysts for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03478285983149782318noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8108667037718172937.post-22737999507903272092013-07-23T21:59:00.000-05:002013-07-23T21:59:38.862-05:00Catalysts at the 2013 Advanced Placement Statistics Reading<br />
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<tr><td style="font-size: 13px; padding-top: 4px;">N.
Parker, Laura Ziegler, Robin Lock (of St. Lawrence University), and
Elizabeth Fry at the Advanced Placement Statistics Reading in Kansas City, Missouri</td></tr>
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Every year, statistics teachers congregate to grade the Advanced Placement Statistics Exam, the final assessment given to high school students who completed the Advanced Placement Statistics course. This year, three of our Ph.D. students, N. Parker, Laura Ziegler, and Elizabeth Fry made it down to Kansas City for the reading, <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1573411705" tabindex="0">June 11–17</span>.<br />
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Laura was a table leader, and N. was an "acorn"—the affectionate name given to first-time readers. AP Statistics gets bigger and bigger every year, with about 630 readers grading nearly 171,000 exams! In fact, this year there were enough exams that the AP readers conquered the "million question challenge": by grading more than a million responses.<br />
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We look forward to the day when enough students are taking AP Statistics that we face a two million question challenge!Catalysts for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03478285983149782318noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8108667037718172937.post-63818686723388173042013-06-02T19:23:00.001-05:002013-06-02T19:23:56.484-05:00Change: Catalysts at the 2013 US Conference on Teaching Statistics<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<img alt="USCCOTS 13" height="177" src="https://www.causeweb.org/images/banner-thumbs/uscots13.png" width="320" /></div>
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Many of University of Minnesota's statistics education group sallied forth to wet, warm North Carolina to share and learn with statistics educators around the country at the US Conference on Teaching Statistics (USCOTS) 2013! The conference theme this year, "Change", is very dear to our group, and throughout the conference, we presented some of what we've learned about rebooting statistics education to serve students better. Along the way, we learned from the wide variety of perspectives and insights on the discipline from statisticians, education researchers, and teachers.<br />
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Right before the conference, we led two fully enrolled workshops:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0NNYyugmk5-K8fHarXN7mS9PU4OfjyRdfA-4mjCxZfBwLwTjUImL57qVlOKjrKiDjMy9ACACO8tiSuzVQ27IC0e0YxLkiN5-32yzq3m9kmgkrjHX9kMcnehxodnymuACJzLYe5k681OzZ/s1600/USCOTS-Laura%252C+Bob%252C+Nicola%252C+Laura-2013.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0NNYyugmk5-K8fHarXN7mS9PU4OfjyRdfA-4mjCxZfBwLwTjUImL57qVlOKjrKiDjMy9ACACO8tiSuzVQ27IC0e0YxLkiN5-32yzq3m9kmgkrjHX9kMcnehxodnymuACJzLYe5k681OzZ/s320/USCOTS-Laura%252C+Bob%252C+Nicola%252C+Laura-2013.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bob delMas (second from left), along with Ph.D. students Laura Ziegler, N. Parker, and Laura Le, taught a workshop on UMN's <a href="http://www.tc.umn.edu/~catalst/">CATALST</a> curriculum, which exclusively uses simulation and resampling methods to teach a post-secondary introductory statistics course. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc8bMIS0ICdzcAg1q4yZrEuTqZHgXZUSt3UVcxb5K-w-dqrrmriCD72y8c4BQ90FUxnn_NfTdeydBwRcZR_nCSxBXV3JpmF_YlKklwW4pyyIvDlCiraTGYrt0G-iKUoWB6pCm07ZcyjhJS/s1600/IMG_0603.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc8bMIS0ICdzcAg1q4yZrEuTqZHgXZUSt3UVcxb5K-w-dqrrmriCD72y8c4BQ90FUxnn_NfTdeydBwRcZR_nCSxBXV3JpmF_YlKklwW4pyyIvDlCiraTGYrt0G-iKUoWB6pCm07ZcyjhJS/s320/IMG_0603.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Michelle Everson (right), with Master's student Ethan Brown, Ph.D. student Rebekah Isaak, and Master's student Anelise Sabbag, discussed practical tips and tricks for teaching a dynamic, engaging online statistics course.</td></tr>
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Did we stop there? Of course not. The conference opened that night with a series of 5-minute presentations, including one by Bob delMas about his wizardly journey to improve statistics education.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="356" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" mozallowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/22164491" style="border-width: 1px 1px 0; border: 1px solid #CCC; margin-bottom: 5px;" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="427"> </iframe> <br />
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Bob led a breakout session on Friday on evaluating new curriculum, using materials developed by the eATLAS project, along with Laura Le, Anelise Sabbag, and Elizabeth Fry.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqmvnnTvqKLrfRthOtAjG3dz_lW7qf_6Qq__D1zdhWY_yeAdkKMhc-dfmuBudWC_UqEWuN9VMZnyRPf_Hn2CruOJm1K-HEICEVGGdKp0aDi84HsEODRvt4eUbwxIOGXWoKGypXRnqhgEDb/s1600/DSC_0404.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqmvnnTvqKLrfRthOtAjG3dz_lW7qf_6Qq__D1zdhWY_yeAdkKMhc-dfmuBudWC_UqEWuN9VMZnyRPf_Hn2CruOJm1K-HEICEVGGdKp0aDi84HsEODRvt4eUbwxIOGXWoKGypXRnqhgEDb/s320/DSC_0404.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Michelle, the perennial evangelist of online statistics education, participated in two more breakout sessions—one on time-management in online statistics courses, and another on the flipped classroom, as well as leading a lunch discussion group on planning the 2014 electronic Conference on Teaching Statistics (eCOTS).<br />
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Liz, N., and Ethan, who've been working with Joan Garfield to improve <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistics_education">Wikipedia's coverage of statistics education</a>, led another lunch discussion table to gather feedback and new collaborators on what should be included there.<br />
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The University of Minnesota's Catalysts for Change were inspired and motivated by this year's USCOTS, including the plenary speeches from Macalester College's Daniel Kaplan and Nicholas Horton (soon to be at Amherst College), North Carolina State University's Hollylynne Stohl Lee, Harvard University's Xiao-Li Meng, and University of Auckland's Chris Wild, and many more. The slides of these speeches can be downloaded from <a href="https://www.causeweb.org/uscots/program/">the conference website</a>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Here's all the Catalysts who could make it, smiling in the energizing glow of the shared passion for excellence in statistics education!</span></td></tr>
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Catalysts for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03478285983149782318noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8108667037718172937.post-48723915128984287592013-03-29T11:16:00.000-05:002013-03-29T11:16:11.030-05:00The Journal of Statistics Education shines out in new directions<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifrwMKzMJVwTghp0jYK8yW1mB-be-aN_NfeVW_fnW_FESFG4e2WowEZdnvEZzmL-yenxNDuGQeRNGiBbtL8rEGYQzgc_34kFejwH_fGS5kf_e82IXBqOPtGwLlIR4zvl3LzcIIahX9vdRW/s1600/combined.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifrwMKzMJVwTghp0jYK8yW1mB-be-aN_NfeVW_fnW_FESFG4e2WowEZdnvEZzmL-yenxNDuGQeRNGiBbtL8rEGYQzgc_34kFejwH_fGS5kf_e82IXBqOPtGwLlIR4zvl3LzcIIahX9vdRW/s400/combined.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Photo source: Chandra X-ray Observatory, <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/2940665939/">Smithsonian Institution</a>)</td></tr>
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Michelle Everson's hard work as the new editor of the Journal of Statistics Education has borne fruit! The March issue is hot off the presses and <a href="http://www.amstat.org/publications/jse/contents_2013.html">freely available online</a>. The issue includes new research on faculty views of statistics, a presentation of a delicious active learning exercise using M&M's, and a new regular feature on research for K-12 education by Tim Jacobbe of the University of Florida.<br />
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Michelle is also bringing her social media experience to help spread JSE's beautiful words to new realms. You can catch up with JSE on its <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/486553198048126/?ref=ts&fref=ts">facebook page</a> and follow its Twitter feed, <a href="https://twitter.com/JStatEd">@JStatEd</a>. The JSE team is also planning a series of webinars on <a href="http://www.causeweb.org/">CAUSEweb</a> starting in June to give readers a chance to interact with the authors of recent JSE features.<br />
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You can read all about the JSE team's plans on the <a href="http://www.amstat.org/publications/jse/">JSE page</a> and read the new issue <a href="http://www.amstat.org/publications/jse/contents_2013.html">here</a>.<br />
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Catalysts for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03478285983149782318noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8108667037718172937.post-41626243345966803222013-02-05T00:42:00.000-06:002013-02-05T00:42:13.913-06:00Building the Logic of Statistical Inference on Day 1: The CATALST iPod Shuffle Activity<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIBJUqhOWirG_kucWlVjtdD3gfh3D8FRaamNeDksKjT9uaEK8XhwMuo3rd6oWqRvoLnzzi7jXWVKBAjVV6aWlVdDDiauyua91KZBJLLPZZkLZ7D2o02Rug9MSj1RABF7oGKiozTaVJdg-L/s1600/ipodquestion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIBJUqhOWirG_kucWlVjtdD3gfh3D8FRaamNeDksKjT9uaEK8XhwMuo3rd6oWqRvoLnzzi7jXWVKBAjVV6aWlVdDDiauyua91KZBJLLPZZkLZ7D2o02Rug9MSj1RABF7oGKiozTaVJdg-L/s320/ipodquestion.jpg" width="219" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">How random is the iPod shuffle? Your students can investigate.</td></tr>
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What does it mean for a process to be "random"? The <a href="http://www.tc.umn.edu/~catalst/">CATALST</a> introductory statistics course engages students in this question in the very first activity, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9639.2012.00531.x/abstract">written up</a> in the latest issue of <i>Teaching Statistics<b> </b></i>by U of M's Laura Ziegler and Joan Garfield.<br />
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As Rob Gould <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1751-5823.2010.00117.x/abstract">points out</a>, students have extensive prior experience with data and randomness. They do not enter the introductory statistics classroom as so many blank slates!<br />
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This situation presents both challenges and opportunities: we've heard from many students that it seems like some artists play more frequently than others on the Apple iPod's "shuffle" mode, which plays all songs in a supposedly random order.<br />
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Apple even ran an ad campaign in 2005 for the iPod Shuffle device with the slogan "Life is random":<br />
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But how random is it? Laura and Joan describe how the iPod shuffle activity elicits and refines student's prior conceptions of randomness. Students first examine 25 randomly generated playlists of 20 songs from a library of 80 songs. They discuss what rules they would use to flag a playlist as non-random. For instance, many students think that a playlist that has more than 5 songs by the same artist should be flagged.<br />
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We then give them five more playlists and give them an opportunity to refine their rules based on the additional information. Oftentimes, their rules will incorrectly flag one of these additional playlists and students may want to rethink their rules.<br />
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Finally, they get a chance to apply their rules to three playlists to make a decision about whether they have enough evidence to decide these playlists aren't random.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg69d7oAH_NohTxv1YrPq_JamsvL63zGpA8p-xVCZymoR3yQjnKF0yx7AnkLSHCsfWguaJ7HmnIoMTr6ErCiVKM8ATdiAaswzl-b_JUKtEqEPr2Rxs0ZRb0YxDsBHOsKMeqFrqVda2YgAih/s1600/Fig2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg69d7oAH_NohTxv1YrPq_JamsvL63zGpA8p-xVCZymoR3yQjnKF0yx7AnkLSHCsfWguaJ7HmnIoMTr6ErCiVKM8ATdiAaswzl-b_JUKtEqEPr2Rxs0ZRb0YxDsBHOsKMeqFrqVda2YgAih/s640/Fig2.png" width="380" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The process of the CATALST iPod Shuffle activity</td></tr>
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Laura and Joan regard the full-class discussion, however, as quite crucial. Here is where students can hear the variety of different rules and face the logic and perception of what it means to be random. Students make all sorts of decisions that provide opportunities for rich conversations about the nature of chance: some students can provide convincing arguments that their rules are useful even when they incorrectly flag a playlist known to be random, while others are quick to say that their rules "prove" that the 3 final playlists were generated randomly.<br />
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This in-class activity is distributed in the <a href="http://www.tc.umn.edu/~catalst/lp/Unit-01.zip">Unit 1 Materials (zip)</a> (<b>Unit-01 > Student-Activities > 01-iPod-Shuffle.doc</b>) on the <a href="http://www.tc.umn.edu/~catalst/materials.php">CATALST materials page</a>. The article also describes a follow-up homework assignment where students actually create a computer model of the process in <a href="http://www.keycurriculum.com/products/tinkerplots">TinkerPlots</a>. This assignment is not publicly distributed, but interested teachers can contact the first author of the paper to find out more.<br />
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The publication is timely, because here at the U of M our students are just finishing up this first activity! It's a great way to get students started on the path to statistical thinking, and we always have fun hearing the creative things that students come up with.Catalysts for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03478285983149782318noreply@blogger.com0