Search

In this article, we explore the use of two published datasets for teaching a wide range of students about regression models, with a particular focus on interaction terms. The two datasets come from recent psychology studies on beliefs about poverty and welfare, and about the dynamics of groups projects. Both datasets (and their original research papers) are accessible to students, and because of their context, students can learn about data collection, measurement, and the use of statistics when studying complex social topics, while using the data to learn about regression analysis. We have used these data for a range of in-class activities, journal paper discussions, exams, and extended projects, at the undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral levels.

AbstractStatistical competitions like ASA DataFest and the Women in Data Science (WiDS) Datathon give students valuable experience working with real, challenging data. By participating, students practice important statistics and data science skills including data wrangling, visualization, modeling, communication, and teamwork. However, while advanced students may have already acquired these skills over the course of their undergraduate program, students with less experience often need additional preparation to participate. In this article, we discuss strategies and targeted activities for helping lower-level students feel comfortable and prepared to compete in events like DataFest. We also share how we used these tools to create a low-stakes DataFest preparation course at our institution. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.

AbstractEngaging and motivating students in undergraduate statistics courses can be enhanced by using topical peer-reviewed publications for analyses as part of course assignments. Given the popularity of on-campus therapy dog stress-reduction programs, this topic fosters buy-in from students whilst providing information regarding the importance of mental health and well-being as it impacts learning. This article describes how instructors can use a study on the benefits of human–dog interactions to teach students about study design, data collection and ethics, and hypothesis testing. The data and research questions are accessible to students without requiring detailed subject-area knowledge. Students can think carefully about how to collect and analyze data from a randomized controlled trial with two-sample hypothesis tests. Instructors can use these data for short in-class examples or longer assignments and assessments, and throughout this article, we suggest activities and discussion questions. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.

This article demonstrates how data from a biology paper, which analyzes the relationship between mass and metabolic rate for two species of marine bryozoan, can be used to teach a variety of regression topics to both introductory and advanced students. A thorough analysis requires intelligent data wrangling, variable transformations, and accounting for correlation between observations. The bryozoan data can be used as a valuable class example throughout the semester, or as a dataset for extended homework assignments and class projects. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.

Think-aloud interviews have been a valuable but underused tool in statistics education research. Think-alouds, in which students narrate their reasoning in real time while solving problems, differ in important ways from other types of cognitive interviews and related education research methods. Beyond the uses already found in the statistics literature—mostly validating the wording of statistical concept inventory questions and studying student misconceptions—we suggest other possible use cases for think-alouds and summarize best-practice guidelines for designing think-aloud interview studies. Using examples from our own experiences studying the local student body for our introductory statistics courses, we illustrate how research goals should inform study-design decisions and what kinds of insights think-alouds can provide. We hope that our overview of think-alouds encourages more statistics educators and researchers to begin using this method. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.