Statistics in Action: Explore a Successful ServiceLearning Project

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Statistics in Action Explore a Successful
Service-Learning Project

• Presented by
• Mary DeHart, Ed.D
• Professor of Mathematics
• Sussex County Community College
• 34th Annual AMATYC Conference
• November 20, 2008

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What is a service-learning project?

• A service-learning project is one in which
  students provide a service to their community
  while utilizing skills and knowledge that are
  relevant to their college courses.

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This presentation will include

• A brief description of how the Pulse of Sussex
  County Service Learning Project began, and of the
  initial structure of the project
• Examples of published surveys
• Step-by-step details of how the current project
  is conducted
• A discussion of how the project helps students to
  learn and understand Statistics

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The Pulse of Sussex CountyService Learning
Project

• Began in 2003
• Involves the cooperation of SCCC students,
  faculty, administration, and the New Jersey
  Herald Newspaper

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Sussex County, NJ Population 153,384Sussex
County Community College Enrollment 3,732
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The Pulse of Sussex County Project

• Initial Goals
• Give a voice to county residents
• Build stronger ties between the college and the
  community
• Provide Statistics students with the opportunity
  to see statistics in action.

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The Project Begins

• Meeting with The NJ Herald
• Forming the Pulse of Sussex County Committee
• Planning Survey Design
• Deciding on the level of student involvement

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Role of Statistics Professor

• Recruit and train students
• Supervise collection of survey topics and
  questions
• Distribute topics and questions to committee
  members
• Help to supervise survey process

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Role of Students

• Brainstorm survey topics
• Formulate unbiased questions
• Conduct surveys

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Role of Pulse of Sussex County Committee

• Review topics suggested by students
• Select topics for surveys
• Review and fine-tune unbiased questions

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Role of SCCC Department of Institutional Research

• Prepare survey forms
• Help to monitor survey process
• Record and analyze data
• Present report to the New Jersey Herald

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Challenges

• Obtaining a random sample of Sussex County
  residents
• Finding phones for students to use
• Analyzing data in a timely fashion

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October 2003The First Two Surveys

• Topics
• The NJ Bear Hunt
• The War in Iraq
• 41 Students Participated
• 370 Surveys Completed

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The New Jersey Bear HuntPublished November 30,
2003

• Questions
• Have you ever seen a bear in Sussex County?
• Yes 91
• No 9

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The New Jersey Bear HuntPublished November 30,
2003

• Have you ever seen a destructive act by a bear?
• Yes 30.7
• No 69

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The New Jersey Bear HuntPublished November 30,
2003

• Questions
• Has the presence of bears in the county changed
  your behavior?
• Yes 37.4
• No 61.2

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The New Jersey Bear HuntPublished November 30,
2003

• Do you believe that there are too many bears
  in Sussex County?
• Yes 48.6
• No 42.4

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The New Jersey Bear HuntPublished November 30,
2003

• Should there be
• a bear hunt
• in New Jersey?
• Yes 43.6
• No 44.4

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First Iraq War Survey Published 12/15/03Sadam
Hussein Captured 12/13/03
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OverdevelopmentPublished February 15, 2004
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Immigration Published August 8, 2004
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Upcoming Presidential Election Published August
29, 2004
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(No Transcript)
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Improvements

• 25 new phone lines installed, 25 phones purchased
  so that calls can be made from one location
• List of randomly generated residential phone
  numbers purchased

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Sports Published October 3, 2004
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Sports Survey Graphs and Results of Follow-Up
Interviews
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VacationsPublished November 21, 2004
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2004 Presidential ElectionPublished November 14,
2004
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Bear Hunt Follow-UpPublished December 22, 2004
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Iraq War Follow-UpPublished December 22, 2004
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DietingPublished January 5, 2005
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Social Security Published May 15, 2005
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Cigarette SmokingPublished July 3, 2005
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Third Anniversary of the Start of the Iraq
WarPublished March 19, 2006
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TattoosPublished April 27, 2007
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Do You Have Any Tattoos?

• Students

• Community

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Do you have any tattoos?

• Students
• n 183

• Community
• n 379

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Quality of Life SurveyPublished January 29, 2006
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Cell Phone UsagePublished February 27, 2007
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New Jersey State Budget Crisis Published June 1,
2008
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Quality of Life in Sussex CountyPublished March
16, 2008
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2008 Presidential ElectionPublished October 26,
2008
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Pulse of Sussex County ProjectionsCompared to
Actual Election Results

• Election Results in Sussex County
• John McCain 59.5
• Barack Obama 39.0

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Current Project Trend Data from the Quality of
Life SurveyExample Would you say that, compared
to one year ago, the overall economy in the
Sussex County region today is better, about the
same, or worse?
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Current Structure of Project

• Typically 75-100 Statistics students work on the
  project each semester.
• Students are awarded 100 points of credit for the
  project 20 points for generating topics and
  formulating questions, and 80 points for making
  phone calls.

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A Step-by-Step Look at the Survey Process

• Statistics students brainstorm topics.
• Professor submits list of topics to the
• NJ Herald and the SCCC Department of
  Institutional Research
• NJ Herald Editor, Institutional Researcher, and
  Professor discuss and select 2 topics per survey
  session.

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• Students formulate 5 or 6 unbiased questions per
  survey topic.
• Editor, Institutional Researcher, and Professor
  review questions and edit if necessary.
• Survey forms are prepared by the Department of
  Institutional Research

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• Professor or Institutional Researcher present the
  survey to the students and provide a short
  training session.
• Surveys are conducted on three consecutive
  evenings from 630 845 PM.
• The Professor and the Institutional Researcher
  supervise the students. Each student is required
  to work one evening.

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• Department of Institutional Research scans form
  and compiles a report to send to the Professor
  and the NJ Herald.
• NJ Herald publishes articles.
• The report and the articles are discussed with
  the students.

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The Pulse of Sussex CountyChanges and Challenges

• No more committee
• Scanning software facilitates data
• entry
• SCCC Journalism students helped with the
  reporting on the 2008 Presidential survey
• Honors Statistics students will begin to help
  with the analysis of data during the spring 2009
  semester

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Benefits of the Project for Teaching and Learning

• Students learn the challenges of collecting
  sample data
• They have an experiential context in which to
  place statistical concepts such as
• sampling techniques
• design of surveys
• formulation of unbiased questions
• sample size
• confidence intervals
• margin of error
• etc.

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The 39 surveys that have been completed for the
Pulse of Sussex County Project would not have
been possible without the help of more than 600
SCCC Statistics students and the following people

• Dr. Bradley Gottfried, former SCCC President
• Bruce Tomlinson, General Manager,
• New Jersey Herald
• Chris Frear, Editor, New Jersey Herald
• Rob Schmicker, former SCCC Institutional
  Researcher
• Matthew Miller, SCCC Associate Director of
  Institutional Research
• Jo-Ann Harby, SCCC Department of Institutional
  Research
• All Pulse of Sussex County Reports submitted
  to the New Jersey Herald were produced by the
  SCCC Department of Institutional Research.

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Thank you for your attention.

• Mary DeHart
• mdehart_at_sussex.edu
• [phone]