Journal of Unified Statistical Techniques
Inaugural Issue: 2013
A semester-long project to engage students in elementary
statistics
Jennifer Bready
Mount Saint Mary College
jen.bready@msmc.edu
The Project
Abstract: In this article the author will discuss a
project used in her elementary statistics class. This
project begins on the first day of class and culminates at the end of the semester in a statistical research paper. Students are involved in every step of
the process, from choosing a topic and title, writing
questions, collecting data, and analyzing results.
Choosing the Topic
On the first day of class students are shown current
articles in the media which include statistics. The
goal is to show students that statistics occurs every
day, and is relevant to the students no matter what
their major is. At the end of the first class, students
are given the task to try and think of a topic that they
could survey during the semester. They are shown
past surveys to help them see what the final project
will look like, and are instructed to think about two
topics that are broad enough to ask 60-70 relevant
questions, and write a short paragraph explaining
more specifically what they would like to research
with their topic. After topics are collected the most
viable ones are shown to the students, who then
vote democratically. Recent topics ranged from
ideas such as tattoos and body art (Titled: Body
Art: Not so smart?), addictions (I Never Predicted
I’d Become Addicted), nutrition (More Stress, More
Calories), and even cheating (Choose to Cheat, Lose
your Seat).
Keywords: statistics, projects, data analysis
Introduction
In teaching statistics, it is not enough for students
to be able to recite formulas and plug in numbers; it
is imperative that students understand the concepts.
One of the best ways for students to show their understanding of concepts is through writing. The understanding of these statistical concepts, which are often
applied across many fields, must be communicated in
a way so that everyone can understand, even people
who may not understand statistics (Radke-Sharpe,
1991). Additionally, for people to write statistically
they must have a topic meaningful to the writer. It
is difficult to analyze and write about a data set; it
is near impossible when the data is of no relevance
to the writer. This project incorporates student input
from start to finish. Additionally, students taking this
statistics course are not mathematics majors and do
not, at least in the beginning of the course, see the
relevance of statistics to them. By having students
actively involved in every stage of the project, student interest and participation is increased in learning
about statistics and in writing the final paper.
Survey Design and Data Collection
After a topic is chosen each student is given the second part of the project, which is to do some research
about their topic and write questions. Students need
to realize that part of any research study is to review what other researchers have discovered about
the topic. For this second component of writing
questions, students are instructed to each write three
questions: one qualitative question, one quantitative
question, and one question of their choice, but they
must define if it is quantitative or qualitative. They
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Journal of Unified Statistical Techniques
are also instructed that qualitative questions should
have answer choices. After questions are submitted,
it is the job of the instructor to sort through their
questions to place them into a survey. Students are
also requested to submit title ideas, and the instructor will choose the most appropriate and creative title for the survey. In the past the surveys have been
printed in a small booklet for students to distribute
and collect their data. This semester the students
will not only be given the booklet, but the survey
will also be placed online using Survey Monkey.
After students receive the final survey it is their
responsibility to collect the data. Students are instructed to collect between 5-10 surveys depending
on the number of students enrolled in the course.
The students then define all of the variables in SPSS,
enter their data, and submit their data to the instructor. The goal is to have between 300-500 surveys
for students to analyze.
Data Analysis
To write their final paper, students are given very
specific requirements explaining the particulars and
a rubric so they know how they are being assessed.
To begin, they need to write an introduction discussing the purpose of the study, define the population, describe the procedure to extract a sample, and
whether they believe it was a random sample. They
then need to discuss the demographics of their sample, and sources or potential sources of bias. Lastly,
they need to assess the degree to which the results
could be generalized to the population.
The next part of the paper is the data-analysis portion and is rather open-ended. Students need to select at least five variables to discuss, which cannot
include variables from the demographics. At least
two of these variables must be scale measurement.
For each variable they must report appropriate measures of central tendency and variation and interpret
these results in the context of the survey. They need
to create two contingency tables and analyze the results, and also report and interpret one significant
correlation. Lastly, to enhance their results they
need to include and explain two graphs, which can
be anywhere in the paper. For example, a pie graph
could be used to show that the distribution of a par-
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Jennifer Bready
ticular attribute could show bias in the sample, or
they could include a bar graph when analyzing one
of their five variables. Graphs must be appropriately titled and labeled. Students are free to chose
any variables that they wish to analyze, which gives
diversity to the papers being submitted.
Lastly, students must write a conclusion summarizing
their results, and suggestions for further study or any
recommendations they might have. It is important
for students to realize that this was their first attempt
at writing questions, building a survey, and collecting data, and they should think about ways they could
improve this study. Papers must be typed and have
graphs and tables incorporated within the text, and of
course must be spell-checked and proof-read
Assessment
The entire project is worth 30% of a student’s overall course grade, and this is used in lieu of a final
exam. The project though is further broken down
into components. Creating topics ideas is 5%, writing the questions is 10%, and data collection is 25%.
The remainder of the grade is for the writing component of the project. In the past the entire 60% was
for the final paper, but students were overwhelmed
with trying to evaluate a large data set, so this was
also broken into stages: 10% for the rough draft of
the introduction, 5% for analyzing two variables and
one graph, and 5% for analyzing one contingency
table. Students are given feedback on each of these
parts and then instructed to write the final paper,
which is the remaining 40% of the grade.
benefits and drawbacks
Having students involved every step of the way has
a number of benefits. To begin, students develop
an understanding of what is involved in completing a statistical study. They have learned how to
write questions, define variables, collect and enter
data into a statistical program, and actually analyze
data. More importantly, students need to show how
to apply appropriate statistics. Whereas a final exam
might instruct students to compute and interpret a
correlation, or find the percents and analyze a contingency table, students are now faced with the task
Inaugural Issue: 2013
of analyzing many different variables, and must recognize when it is appropriate to use each statistical
analysis. They need to understand how to best analyze a nominal variable compared to a ratio-leveled
variable. They must also realize that they should be
using scale variables to compute a correlation, and
nominal or ordinal variables in a contingency table.
Furthermore, they must be able to connect their
analysis in a fluid, written document.
Students are also given the option of being creative
in their paper. For example, students can write their
paper in the format of a newspaper or journal article, or any other creative outlet as long as they include the appropriate statistics. For students who
fear mathematics, allowing this creativity in their
presentation motivates students more in their writing. Students have written projects in the form of a
script for a television show, a magazine, minutes of
a meeting, and even as an advice columnist!
There are however some drawbacks. While writing is important in statistics, it unfortunately does
increase the work load (Stromberyg & Ramanathan,
1996). There is a significant time factor for the faculty as well as the student when completing this
project. One way the instructor has tried to decrease
the added work load is to allow the students the option to work with a partner. Students share a grade
only on the final paper portion. Additionally, a student created survey will have flaws, including issues
with the gathering of the data. However, this is all
part of the learning process, which is why students
are asked to reflect at the end of their paper what
could be done differently if this study were to be
completed again.
work, they found the process beneficial, and felt that
they learned more than they would have compared
to studying for a traditional final exam. Many students love the creative option of the paper, putting in
considerably more effort than they would have for
a standard statistics paper. Furthermore, students
have a vested interest in learning about questions
that they themselves asked, and are challenged to
apply their statistical knowledge acquired throughout the semester.
References
[1]
[2]
Radke-Sharpe, M. (1991). Writing as a
component of statistics education. The
American Statistician, 45, 292-293.
Strombery, A. & Ramanathan, S. (1996).
Easy impomentation of writing in introductory statistics courses. The American Statistician, 50, 159-163.
Conclusion
This project involves students from the first day of
class to the last. The topic, questions, and data are
all student generated. Students have the opportunity
to evaluate a large data set with 60-70 different variables and typically a minimum of 300 respondents.
Having student participation in a statistical research
project from the onset increases student motivation and learning. Course evaluations showed that
even though the students felt the project was a lot of
A semester-long project to engage students in elementary studies
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