Statistics
I love teaching Statistics! Why? Because I can weave the student's real world into most of the topics.
My hope is that by posting my materials, I can inspire you to try new things in your Statistics courses.
The following is an article that summarizes my teaching approach in Statistics ICTM Journal: Making It Real for Students as Agents of Change
My hope is that by posting my materials, I can inspire you to try new things in your Statistics courses.
The following is an article that summarizes my teaching approach in Statistics ICTM Journal: Making It Real for Students as Agents of Change
First Day(s) of Statistics Class Files
Syllabus for Statistics 1 Course (ICCC Mat 157)
First Day Survey for Students I gather anonymous student data to use for examples in the course.
Example of compiled data from my First Day Survey This is an example of the spreadsheet from the raw data I collected in the First Day Survey. We use this for examples in class during early chapters when learning how to organize, display, and analyze data.
Video: Shift Happens (Intriguing 5 minute video with examples of descriptive & inferential statistics)
Syllabus for Statistics 1 Course (ICCC Mat 157)
First Day Survey for Students I gather anonymous student data to use for examples in the course.
Example of compiled data from my First Day Survey This is an example of the spreadsheet from the raw data I collected in the First Day Survey. We use this for examples in class during early chapters when learning how to organize, display, and analyze data.
Video: Shift Happens (Intriguing 5 minute video with examples of descriptive & inferential statistics)
Fun Powerpoint to Demonstrate Bias when Conducting Surveys: How Are These Groups Biased?
Website to Teach Regression Lines and Correlation Coefficient: Regression Demonstration Website
Use the Student Test Scores for Statistical Analysis: Handout to Analyze our Statistics Test Scores
Labs that Use Real Data when Teaching Statistics Concepts
Lab: Designed Experiment: Do the Expensive Brands Taste Better?
Foods that worked well for this lab include milk chocolate chips,
marshmallows, queso, canned cheese, potato chips, peanut butter,
energy drinks, donuts...I would let the students choose the week before.
Which choice was the worst for me? ice cream (melted too fast)
Lab: Generate 1 Variable Stats to Analyze Populations of Schools in our Sharing Agreement
Lab: Creating a Contingency and Probability Table from Real Data
Lab: How to Create Scatterplots and a Regression Line with the TI-Nspire Calculator
Lab: Mean of the Sample Means: Weights of our Football Players Offensive (or Defensive) Line
Lab: When Should I Use Z-Test vsersus a T-Test?
Lab: Paired T-Test Comparing Right and Left Hand when Stacking Pennies
Lab: Two-Sample T-Test: What Do the Students Think about Consolidating our Schools?
Lab: Chi Square Goodness of Fit: Do We Get to Eat the M&M's?
Lab: Chi Square Independence Test: Are Gender and Text Message Length Associated?
Lab: Chi Square Ind. Test: Is There an Association between Phone Provider & Towns in our School District?
Lab: Is There an Association between School Sharing Opinion and Time it takes Students to get to School?
Lab: F-Test: Which Population is Better at Throwing Darts?
Lab: Designed Experiment: Do the Expensive Brands Taste Better?
Foods that worked well for this lab include milk chocolate chips,
marshmallows, queso, canned cheese, potato chips, peanut butter,
energy drinks, donuts...I would let the students choose the week before.
Which choice was the worst for me? ice cream (melted too fast)
Lab: Generate 1 Variable Stats to Analyze Populations of Schools in our Sharing Agreement
Lab: Creating a Contingency and Probability Table from Real Data
Lab: How to Create Scatterplots and a Regression Line with the TI-Nspire Calculator
Lab: Mean of the Sample Means: Weights of our Football Players Offensive (or Defensive) Line
Lab: When Should I Use Z-Test vsersus a T-Test?
Lab: Paired T-Test Comparing Right and Left Hand when Stacking Pennies
Lab: Two-Sample T-Test: What Do the Students Think about Consolidating our Schools?
Lab: Chi Square Goodness of Fit: Do We Get to Eat the M&M's?
Lab: Chi Square Independence Test: Are Gender and Text Message Length Associated?
Lab: Chi Square Ind. Test: Is There an Association between Phone Provider & Towns in our School District?
Lab: Is There an Association between School Sharing Opinion and Time it takes Students to get to School?
Lab: F-Test: Which Population is Better at Throwing Darts?
How can I help students improve comprehension when reading their textbook?
At first I would just plant test questions directly from the textbook. The problem was that students would get angry about these questions and be overwhelmed not knowing where in the textbook the questions might come from. So I decided to start smaller. I created 5 question reading quizzes over 2-3 pages of textbook material. The students would know days ahead of time which pages and when the quiz would take place. They could read the pages before class, but I also gave them time to read the pages right before the quiz. The key was that every student needed to close their textbook after they read the pages, and only then I handed out the quiz for them. So they truly had to try to comprehend the material they just read. Students still didn't like these quizzes, but they eventually started reading the book more! (The quizzes had a 5% grade weighting and even with only that, I always got excellent effort.)
Copy of my Reading Quizzes (Based on Weiss Introductory Statistics, 10th Ed.)
At first I would just plant test questions directly from the textbook. The problem was that students would get angry about these questions and be overwhelmed not knowing where in the textbook the questions might come from. So I decided to start smaller. I created 5 question reading quizzes over 2-3 pages of textbook material. The students would know days ahead of time which pages and when the quiz would take place. They could read the pages before class, but I also gave them time to read the pages right before the quiz. The key was that every student needed to close their textbook after they read the pages, and only then I handed out the quiz for them. So they truly had to try to comprehend the material they just read. Students still didn't like these quizzes, but they eventually started reading the book more! (The quizzes had a 5% grade weighting and even with only that, I always got excellent effort.)
Copy of my Reading Quizzes (Based on Weiss Introductory Statistics, 10th Ed.)
How I got students to read actual research studies:
Guidelines for the Research Presentation and a Rubric to Grade it
Examples of Research Presentations from my Students
Guidelines for the Research Presentation and a Rubric to Grade it
Examples of Research Presentations from my Students
How I got students to conduct research to help the school & community:
Guidelines for Student Research Study
Research Proposals for Student Research Studies (Feel free to use them in your class or as starter ideas.)
Form to Review Projects from Past Years
Research Studies Conducted by my Students
Student Handout: How to put Greek Letters and Other Math Symbols into a Paper
Template to Create Pareto Charts (These are used to create a graph from the comments in a survey.)
Guidelines for Student Research Study
Research Proposals for Student Research Studies (Feel free to use them in your class or as starter ideas.)
Form to Review Projects from Past Years
Research Studies Conducted by my Students
Student Handout: How to put Greek Letters and Other Math Symbols into a Paper
Template to Create Pareto Charts (These are used to create a graph from the comments in a survey.)
Reliable resource when you need up-to-date descriptive statistics: USA Facts Website
Online Resources for the Introductory Statistics Textbook (Weiss, 10th Ed.)
Online Resources for the Introductory Statistics Textbook (Weiss, 10th Ed.)
Using Guided Notes can help students learn more because they write (but not as much!) Creating them can be a time issue. If you have notes on slides, go to notes form and replace the key words with blank lines.
Example: Notes on Finding Quartiles, Deciles and Percentiles
Example: Notes on Finding Quartiles, Deciles and Percentiles
How I Conducted Unit Tests in Statistics
1. Multiple chapters were put into a unit to have fewer tests. (This gave me more days to teach the content and do labs.)
2. In addition to textbook review problems, I create a handout of additional problems which have an identical look to test
problems so I can lower test anxiety.
3. Provide a 3 x 5 notecard to students three days before the test. The student can hand-write information from the
chapter. They can color code it and use both sides. It is turned in with their test. If students are struggling with
tests, it may be that they aren't preparing a helpful notecard. (This really is a review method more than anything!)
1. Multiple chapters were put into a unit to have fewer tests. (This gave me more days to teach the content and do labs.)
2. In addition to textbook review problems, I create a handout of additional problems which have an identical look to test
problems so I can lower test anxiety.
3. Provide a 3 x 5 notecard to students three days before the test. The student can hand-write information from the
chapter. They can color code it and use both sides. It is turned in with their test. If students are struggling with
tests, it may be that they aren't preparing a helpful notecard. (This really is a review method more than anything!)
End of Course Files
Summary Sheet of the Statistics Hypothesis Tests
Student Feedback Form for the End of the Course
Summary Sheet of the Statistics Hypothesis Tests
Student Feedback Form for the End of the Course
Iowa Core Standards taught in most Introductory Statistics courses:
Mastery Standards for SVHS Statistics and Probability (Source: Iowa Core Mathematics)
Mastery Standards for SVHS Statistics and Probability (Source: Iowa Core Mathematics)
Videos for class or online students (or tutoring)
Against All Odds: Inside Statistics Videos
Set of 36 short videos that explain statistics concepts with helpful examples.
Against All Odds: Inside Statistics Videos
Set of 36 short videos that explain statistics concepts with helpful examples.