NSF Award
9972494
This is a two-year project developing and implementing a sequence of two 6-hour courses integrating statistics and computer applications courses. The proposed courses adapt elements from the project "A Computer Lab for an Integrated Introductory Computer Science Course" from Sam Houston State University, the text "The Basic Practice of Statistics" by David S. Moore, and "Workshop Statistics: Discovery with Data" by Allan J. Rossman. This sequence addresses two issues.<br/><br/>First, as in many universities across the United States, the elementary statistics courses at Texas Woman's University have been taught in lecture format with minimal use of technology. Recent trends in statistical education use technology to provide experiential learning. Often, however, technology is simply added to statistics courses and not fully integrated as a necessary tool for analysis and communication. In turn, computer application skills are often taught outside of a context in which they might be used and appreciated. As the authors of Shaping the Future note, students tend to compartmentalize their knowledge. The new sequence combats this by integrating two courses formerly taught individually.<br/><br/>The second issue is the loss of talented students because of introductory courses viewed as unwelcoming and intimidating. This is especially true of underrepresented groups including women at both the introductory and advanced levels. This project combats this by providing female mentors for women in the new courses and for graduate students. A student assistant works side-by-side with each PI preparing for each new course, assists in the classroom, and participates in the evaluation and dissemination of results. These students, in turn, serve as mentors for students taking the new courses.
