AP Statistics

2014 AP Stat Reading: Best Practices Presentation

joshwilkerson Conference Presentations, Handouts, Resources, Sample Projects/Lessons , , , ,

I was fortunate enough to be selected to give a presentation on service-learning in statistics as part of the “Best Practices” evening of the AP Statistics exam reading in Kansas City. In case you are unfamiliar with the event I encourage you to check out “Best Practices” presentations from prior years over at APStatsMonkey (even if you are familiar with the event I still encourage you to check out these great resources and consider how you might implement some of those ideas in your own classroom).

Below you will find the PowerPoint that accompanied my short and sweet 5 minute presentation (click on the image below to access the PowerPoint). Due to time constraints, the meat of the information can be found in the resource documents that I have also included below.

The main question I aim to address  is this: what is the best resource that a teacher can introduce into his/her statistics classroom to help students make meaningful connections between course material and the true value of statistics?

I don’t think it is technology (be that calculators, iPhone apps, online applets, or statistical software packages) which is often discussed as a teaching aid in statistics. I don’t even think that is integrating current articles and published studies into classroom discussion.

Don’t get me wrong, both technology and current events can be powerful pedagogical tools and there certainly is a place for them in the classroom. As a teacher who regularly uses technology and “real-life” articles in my lessons, I would like to submit to you that there is actually something else, something better, that when used well can really cement the value of statistics in the hearts and minds of students. That something: service-learning. As it turns out, I think the best resource that you can introduce into a statistics classroom is to actually get the students out of the classroom and into the local community.

Why I think service-learning is an effective vehicle for communicating the significance and value of statistics to students:

  1. Students are actually doing statistics. 
    • There is something about the physical practice of getting outside the classroom to collect and analyze data that implants an appreciation for the processes of statistics into students.
  2. Students are actually doing statistics in an unfamiliar/uncomfortable (read: human) way.
    • In service-learning there is interaction with actual human beings. The data on the paper now has a face and the analysis becomes a little messier and less clinical. I find this tends to stretch students out of their comfort zone in a good way. It also encourages their focus to shift from individualistic outcomes (such as what grade they might receive) to more altruistic aims of education.
  3. Students are actually doing statistics in an unfamiliar/uncomfortable (read: human) way and they (as well as the community) are experiencing firsthand the fruits of their labor.
    • I require students to complete their project by giving an oral presentation to the service agency. Interpreting confidence intervals/levels, p-values, and significance levels becomes so much more meaningful to students when they have to explain these concepts to a service-agency and build connections for the agency as to what to do with this information practically moving forward.

Check out the presentation and the resource documents for more information. Always feel free to contact me through this site if you have any further questions or want to discuss the topic in more detail.

This is not the first time that I have written about (or presented at a conference) on the topic of service-learning. In addition to the resources that you will find below, feel free to check out some of the prior posts on service learning:

  • Serving through Statistics: the first (and largest) service project that I implemented complete with video summaries and interview with students.
  • CAMT 2012 Presentation: Presentation I gave at the Conference for the Advancement of Mathematics Teaching based on the first statistics service-learning project mentioned above.
  • Geometry and the Homeless: the first service-learning project I did with my geometry students. An updated version from this last school year should find its way onto the site by mid summer.

serving through statistics image

Resource Documents:

Additional Resources:

Forthcoming:

  • I will be working this summer on an independent study of service-learning in math education for my doctoral coursework. The end goal of the course is to have produce an extensive literature review of the resources currently available on the topic. I plan to share that information here by the end of this summer.

CAMT 2012 Presentation

joshwilkerson Classroom Stories, Conference Presentations, Handouts, Resources, Sample Projects/Lessons, Videos , , ,

Please read my previous post on Serving Through Statistics for a summary of the concept behind this class project. Below you will find the presentation that I gave at CAMT 2012 over this project as well as links to resources and project details.

Click the image above for the complete PowerPoint presentation on “Serving Through Statistics.”

Service-Learning Resources:

Mathematics Resources from the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse

An Introduction to Statistics Syllabus with a Service Component

The journal PRIMUS announces an issue dedicated to service-learning resources

General Project-Based Learning Resources from Edutopia

Serving Through Statistics Project Components:

Overview of Serving Through Statistics on the Navasota ISD Teaching and Learning Blog

My initial proposal to students on the idea of a service-learning project (much borrowed from the Intro to Stat syllabus linked above)

Voting form for subject of project and project managers

Proposal developed by project managers

Initial article on the project in the Navasota paper

Survey on Google Forms: English Version   Spanish Version

Results from Google Forms

Presentation Students Gave to Navasota ISD School Board

Presentation Students Gave to Navasota City Council

Publication of results in the Navasota paper

Student Self-Evaluation Form

Project Manager Evaluation Form

Guidelines for Final Write-Up

Serving through Statistics

joshwilkerson Classroom Stories, Sample Projects/Lessons, Videos ,

Whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.

~ Matthew 20:26-28

I wanted to do things a little differently with my AP Statistics spring project this year. I found in the past that the cumulative project I assigned in the spring (where students designed an experiment, collected data, and used a statistical inference procedure to draw conclusions) just didn’t hold their interest, and therefore the projects didn’t reflect the students’ best work. You have to keep in mind these are high school seniors getting ready to graduate, their GPA is pretty much set in stone regardless of their grade on this project, and they have already taken (and passed, I hope) the AP Stat exam. For some reason they didn’t want to go the extra mile on this stat project simply because it was an interesting application of statistics. Weird right?

Wrong.

Looking back, as a student I would probably approach the project with the same indifferent attitude. The solution? Make the project something truly meaningful that the students have a vested interest in. Of course this is easier said than done. As I racked my brain thinking of ideas I was blessed to receive this notice from PRIMUS (which I posted here on GodandMath):

The journal  PRIMUS announces a special issue on Service-Learning. Kelly Black, Karl-Dieter Crisman, and Dick Jardine will be guest editing the special issue, inspired by a MAA Contributed Paper Session on this topic at the Joint Meetings in 2011.

Service-Learning connects service to the community with academically-based learning. This is a growing concern on college campuses, sometimes even a mandate, but the mathematical sciences are often seen as a more challenging environment to bring service into the classroom.  In particular, there are only a few resources widely available on this topic specifically geared toward collegiate mathematics.  This PRIMUS special issue aims to provide a significant addition to this literature, with a number of tested ideas in a single volume as a pedagogical resource.

I thought a service-learning project would a be a great way for students to apply what they have learned in the classroom to their local community, and all in the context of serving – a Christian maxim that is easy to sell in a public school environment.

After a quick Google search I cam across the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse and their Mathematics resources. This was a valuable resource for me in planning out this project (especially Mark C. Hampton’s Introduction to Statistics syllabus).

I presented the idea to my students and I was amazed to see how excited they became over the project. They quickly determined the focus of their study: evaluating the aid provided to victims of Texas wildfires from last summer. The wildfires had come through our county and affected the lives of many of the students, their family, and their friends. I believe the ownership the students felt in selecting a topic so close to their hearts, as well as the incentive of presenting their results publicly (a commitment was made at the beginning of the project to present the results before the city council and to publish them in the local paper), truly made the project more meaningful. This resulted in motivated and dedicated students, new and interesting learning opportunities, and one amazed teacher.

I knew my students were awesome, but this brought it to a whole new level.

For more details on the organization and implementation of the project I invite you to visit Navasota ISD’s Teaching and Learning Blog for a nice write-up. Below is a video that the district so graciously put together:

I also had the fortune of being a finalist for the HEB Excellence in Education Awards. As part of the awards program, a film crew surprised me in my classroom and did an impromptu interview on this project. Below is their completed video:

If you would like more details, I will be giving a presentation over this project at CAMT (Conference for Advancement in Mathematics Teaching) this summer. Here is a link to the online catalog with the description of “Serving through Statistics.” Below are the mathematical/pedagogical goals of this presentation:

The goal of this presentation is to equip participants with the tools to successfully implement a project that synthesizes the major concepts of AP Statistics: experimental design, data analysis, and statistical inference. Through this project students will integrate their conceptual understanding of statistics with the practical functioning of their local community, ultimately gaining a deeper appreciation for the role statistics plays in the organization and evaluation of service societies.

My hope is to implement more projects like this next year and to begin expanding them to the other subjects I teach.

Geometry, I have you in my sights…with this idea.