Workshop title: Teaching Introductory Statistics with Simulation Based-Inference
Presenter: Nathan Tintle, Dordt College
Nathan is a Professor of Statistics at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa, USA. He is the Principal Investigator of three collaborative grants from the Department of Undergraduate Education of the U.S. National Science Foundation focused on innovations in undergraduate statistics education. These efforts have resulted in a semester-long curriculum for undergraduate statistics courses (Introduction to Statistical Investigations), draft materials for a second course and assessment results on thousands of undergraduate statistics students. Nathan’s contributions to teaching and his innovations towards teaching introductory statistics were recognized by receiving the prestigious Waller Education Award of the American Statistical Association in 2013. Nathan also received the best paper award from the Journal of Statistics Education in 2012 for a paper he co-authored titled “Development and Assessment of a Preliminary Randomization-based Introductory Statistics Curriculum”.
Workshop description:
The goals of this workshop are to help participants revise their introductory statistics course in two ways:
- Using simulation-based methods, as opposed to methods based on the normal distribution, to introduce concepts of statistical inference, and
- Emphasizing the overarching process of conducting statistical investigations, from formulating a question and collecting data through exploring data and drawing inferences to communicating results, throughout the course.
The workshop will provide direct experience with hands-on activities designed to introduce students to fundamental concepts of inference using simulation-based methods. The learning activities involve using freely available applets to explore concepts and analyze real data from genuine research studies. The presenter will also offer implementation and assessment suggestions/results. More information about the project on which this workshop is based can be found at: www.math.hope.edu/isi/. Participants are encouraged to bring a laptop or tablet.