Teaching Intro Stats Math 1530 for Prospective Elementary School Teachers

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Teaching Intro Stats Math 1530 for Prospective
Elementary School Teachers

• The Habitat experience at East Tennessee State
  University (ETSU).
• Supported by the TBR-TPP grant
• Edith Seier Susan Hosler
• Department of Mathematics
• seier_at_etsu.edu

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• MATH1530-Probability Statistics
• Before
• As the Mathematics general education requirement
  at ETSU, many sections with students from all
  majors were taught using a common syllabus, the
  same textbook and a departmental final exam.
• Now
• Starting in the Fall 2006 a section for
  prospective elementary school teachers is being
  taught in the Habitat. We cover the same topics
  than the other sections and students take the
  departmental final but some education related
  activities have been added

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The Habitat

• 10 tables, 40 chairs
• Instructor computer projectors
• 20 laptops with internet access
• Cabinets with manipulatives, calculators,
  material.
• All class material is posted in Blackboard
• 
  

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Purpose of the added activities information

• Create awareness among the students that
  Statistics and Probability are taught in the
  elementary school.
• Familiarize them with useful information and
  resources for teaching probability and statistics
  at the school level.
• Experience teaching strategies and tools for the
  teaching of Statistics.
• Build a stronger communication between Math
  Stat and Science courses

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Awareness informationResource Web page

• A web page has been created with links to the
• Tennessee Standards GAISE, and different sites
  with resources for the teaching of Statistics
• http//www.etsu.edu/math/seier/teachers.htm

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Awareness strategies Readings

• Papers from journal Teaching Statistics (some
  are free from http//www.rsscse.org.uk/ts/TBO.html
  
• Bramwell,A. Primary Data http//www.rsscse.org.uk/
  ts/gtb/bramwell.pdf
• Turner,C. (2006_)Height, Foot Length and Threat
  to Woodland Positive Learning from Pupil
  Relevant Data. Teaching Statistics, Vol28,1
• Sherwood,B. Probability in a Primary School.
  Best in Teaching Statistics http//www.rsscse.org.
  uk/ts/bts/sherwood/text.html
• Green,D.R. The Chance and Probability Concepts
  Project. The Best in teaching Statistics
  http//www.rsscse.org.uk/ts/bts/green/text.html
• Du Feau,C. Biodiversity for beginners. Volume 28
  Issue 3 Page 66 - September 2006
• Riddiough, R. McColl, J.H. How long is a piece
  of string? http//www.rsscse.org.uk/ts/gtb/riddiou
  gh.pdf

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Experimenting with tools Creating graphs with
objects

• For the topics that can be taught at the school
  level whenever possible a hands-on activity is
  used in its introduction
• Use of stickers and post-it-notes to make
  histograms, stem-and-leaf displays, scatter plots
  etcetera.

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• Experimenting with tools
• GENERATING DATA IN CLASS
• Use of the reaction time rule
• Experimenting with origami frogs (compare two
  folding patterns in terms of length of the jump)
• Sum of two dice to show variability in results
  from random experiments and that probabilities
  only make sense in the VERY VERY LONG run.

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• For topics that are taught only at the college
  level, the worksheets are worked in class using
  computers. Also sets of multiple choice questions
  were assigned for review and discussed in the
  following class. Students expressed that group
  work with class discussion helped and wished we
  had had more time to do more of those.

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Experiencing strategies Posters Projects

• Students prepare one poster and one statistical
  project in groups of two outside class, for
  grade.
• We follow the definitions and instructions of the
  American Statistical Association competition
  for K-12 students.
• The idea is that they apply what they learn and
  become familiar with a statistical activity they
  can do with their students.
• http//www.amstat.org/education/index.cfm?fuseacti
  onposter1

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Posters
published

• They could use data already published or collect
  their own data

own
published
own
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Projects

• Projects start with a research question
• Students collect their own data through surveys
  or experimentation
• After they do the analysis they put the results
  on a poster board.

survey
experiment
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survey
experiment
experiment
survey
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In summary, we have added

• Information about standards and resources
  (available through web page)
• 4 special assignments (total points equivalent to
  1 partial exam) on top of the regular homework of
  the course.
• poster
• project
• reading assignment from journal Teaching
  Statistics
• Internet search on teaching statistics
• Hands on approach to teach the topics that are
  taught in the elementary school using stickers,
  post-it-notes, reaction time rulers, origami
  frogs, dice, spinners, etcetera.

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Room for improvement

• More time?
• Improve the level of posters and projects
• More frequent reminders of the standards
• More frequent interaction/feedback with regard to
  posters projects
• Insist more in not over-using pie charts

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Future plans

• We are asking the faculty teaching science
  courses to propose simple research questions that
  could originate statistical projects. Projects
  seem to be the most natural bridge between the
  science and statistics courses.Those questions
  could be used with the students who do not come
  up with an interesting project idea on their own.