Survey Says:
Using Course Long Projects to Connect
Statistics to the Real World
AMATYC Meeting
November 2007
Minneapolis, MN
Johnny Duke, Ph.D.
Georgia Highlands College
Rome, Georgia
jduke@highlands.edu
Survey Says
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Connections
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NCTM Process Standard
Connections among the various areas
of mathematics.
Connections between mathematics and
the real world.
Survey Says
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Advice from the American Statistical
Association
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“… students should have the
experience of applying their learning in
settings as real as possible during their
education. This could include co-ops,
summer jobs, class projects …”
Ritter, Starbuck, and Hogg
Survey Says
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Introduction to Statistics is a service
course at Shorter College and at Georgia
Highlands.
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A variety of majors: Business, Biology,
Ecology, Middle Grades Education,
Mathematics, Social Sciences, History
Concern that learning was disjointed and
isolated from real life.
First conceived of a semester long project
while working with Service Learning.
Survey Says
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Goals
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Connect what was being learned in
class with a real life application.
Connect the various elements of
introductory statistics to each other.
Learn to use technological tools
(calculators and computers) to organize
and present data.
Give students an experience that would
help prepare them for the use of
statistics in their future careers.
Survey Says
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Volunteerism Survey: Collecting Data
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Creation of a survey instrument
What types of data are needed?
 How to word the instrument for clarity.
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Types of sampling techniques
Random Sample
 Systematic Sample
 Stratified Sample
 Cluster Sample
 Convenience Sample
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Survey Says
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Volunteerism Survey: Organizing
Data
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Database Entry
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Standardize entry for consolidation
Frequency Distributions
Categorical
 Ungrouped and Grouped
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Graphs
Bar graphs
 Pie Charts
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Survey Says
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Volunteerism Survey: Analyzing Data
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Measures of Central Tendency
Measures of Variation
Confidence Intervals
Single Population Hypothesis Testing
Two Population Hypothesis Testing
 Did the sampling method appear to make
a difference?
 How do religious and non-religious
volunteers compare?
Survey Says
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Volunteerism Survey: Presenting Data
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Graphs and Charts
Written report
Connection with English
 Connection with skills in Introduction to
Computers
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Survey Says
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Other projects
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Television Sex and Violence Survey 1999
 Data Collection Different
 The need for training became apparent
 Could be combined with literature research
Presidential Election Polls 2000 and 2004
 Intersected with current political events
 Very similar process to Volunteerism Survey
 Students learned to use Minitab in 2000 and
Excel in 2004
Survey Says
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Other Projects
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Spring 2001
The groups proposed projects that I could
approve or not approve.
I provided a list to help them “brainstorm.”
This made it easier for students to apply
statistics to their field/particular interests.
There was unevenness in the amount of
statistics used in the projects in terms of
correlating to the topics covered in class.
Survey Says
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Other Projects
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Statistical Analysis of SAFE
2002
An after-school program of the Rome City
Schools
 Combined Service Learning
 Used this project to teach SPSS
 By far the most important project
 Disappointment with testing error that
caused the data to be thrown out
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Survey Says
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Other Projects
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Statistical Analysis of the Tax
Assessments for Residential Property in
Floyd County 2003
Collection of data from the public records
at the Tax Assessor’s Office
 Comparison of actual selling prices with
the appraised prices in 2002
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Survey Says
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Other projects
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Human Body Proportions and the
Golden Ratio 2005
Testing the claims from Internet sites on
the Golden Ratio
 Data Collection and Entry into Excel
 Descriptive Statistics
 Confidence Intervals and Hypotheses
Testing
 Correlation and Linear Regression
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Survey Says
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Other Projects
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Local Weather
Local high, low, and precipitation for a
month from weather.com
 Descriptive stats and graphs using Excel
 Probability and probability distributions
 Confidence Intervals
 Hypothesis Testing
 Correlation and Linear Regression
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Survey Says
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Other Projects
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Skittles (M&M’s)
Used in Maymester
 A much “lighter” project
 You can eat the data
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Survey Says
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Ideas from others
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Salaries of Major League Baseball
Players from USA Today – Wiseman &
Chatterjee
Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll—Bolstad,
Hunt, & McWhirter
Birth records from North Carolina—
Holcomb & Ruffer
Survey Says
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Ledotler’s List
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Salaries of Professors at the University of Iowa
Predicting future student enrollment at U of Iowa
ACT and College Performance
Sports statistics
Automotive Studies
Safety of Iowa Roads
Health-related Issues
Real Estate listing and selling prices
Sales and attendance analysis of a local restaurant
Radio station preferences
Survey Says
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Grading
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Series of worksheets
Total generally equivalent to 1.5 to 2
test grades
Both individual and group work
Survey Says
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Result of One Student Survey
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94% agreed with “These projects helped me to
better understand statistical concepts.”
82% agreed with “Using the same data set
repeatedly has helped me to see there is a
range of statistical procedures (techniques)
that may be used to investigate/answer the
same question.”
97% agreed with “These projects helped me to
learn how to construct graphs and tables for
statistical analysis.”
82% agreed with “Working in groups helped
me to learn to communicate statistical ideas.”
Holcomb & Ruffer, p. 52
Survey Says
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What are your questions?
What are your ideas and/or
experiences?
Print Resources
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Bolstad, W. M., Hunt, Lyn A., and McWhirter, Judith L. “Sex,
Drugs, and Rock & Roll Survey in First-Year Service Course in
Statistics,” The American Statistician, 55, 145-149.
Duke, Johnny I. “Service Learning: Taking Mathematics into
the Real World,” The Mathematics Teacher, 92, 794-796.
Holcomb, John P. And Ruffer, Rochelle L., “Using a Term-Long
Project Sequence in Introductory Statistics,” The American
Statistician, 54, 49-53.
Kvam, Paul H. “The Effect of Active Learning Methods on
Student Retention in Engineering Statistics,” The American
Statistician, 54, 136-140.
Print Resources
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Ledolter, Johannes. “Projects in Introductory Statistics
Courses,” The American Statistician, 49, 364-367.
Ritter, Mary Ann, Starbuck, Robert R., and Hogg, Robert V.
“Advice From Prospective Employers on Training BS
Statisticians,” The American Statistician, 55, 14-18.
Root, Rob and Thorme, Trisha. “Community-Based Projects
in Applied Statistics: Using Service-Learning to Enhance
Student Understanding,” The American Statistician, 55, 326331.
Wiseman, Frederick and Chatterjee, Sangit. “Major League
Baseball Player Salaries: Bringing Realism into Introductory
Statistics Courses,” The American Statistician, 51, 350-352.
Internet Resources
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http://www.cis.ysu.edu/~jholcomb/projects/projects.htm
This site provides the database and materials that accompany
the project described in Holcomb and Ruffer’s article.
http://asp.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/salaries/ This is
the USA Today site for Major League Baseball salaries from
1988 through the current season.
http://asp.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/salaries/ This is
the USA Today site for NFL salaries from the 2000 season to
date.
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http://www.usatoday.com/sports/nba/salaries00.htm This is
the USA Today site for NBA salaries for the 2000/2001 year.
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http://www.census.gov/ The official site of the US Census
Bureau, which contains a wealth of statistical information.