What's Brewing? A Statistics Education Discovery Project

Abstract

We believe that students learn best, are actively engaged, and are genuinely interested when working on real-world problems. This can be done by giving students the opportunity to work collaboratively on projects that investigate authentic, familiar problems. This article shares one such project that was used in an introductory statistics course. We describe the steps taken to investigate why customers are charged more for iced coffee than hot coffee, which included collecting data and using descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. Interspersed throughout the article, we describe strategies that can help teachers implement the project and scaffold material to assist students who may have gaps in their mathematical background and offer suggestions if using the lesson with students who are mathematically stronger. Students were highly motivated and enthusiastic to work on a problem with a rich, readily understood context. This article provides teachers with an alternative way to assess student learning, and gives students the opportunity to work the way statisticians work.

Online Teaching Quality Evaluation of Business Statistics Course Utilizing Fermatean Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process with Aggregation Operator

“…Especially in today's era of data transformation, how to deal with data quickly and accurately and make correct decisions has become the focus of both the government and enterprises. Sole and Weinberg [69], pro-fessors of the School of Data at New York University, believe that "this is the most exciting era for statistics, because the availability of all kinds of data has never been improved, and we can analyze larger amounts of data to reach more accurate conclusions." As a methodological discipline based on data collection, processing and analysis, business statistics has become an essential course for cultivating students with mathematical statistics knowledge, statistical literacy and awareness in the business school in colleges and universities, and exerts a significant role in supplying statistics talents to the country.…”

Factors Influencing Students’ Understanding of Basic Statistical Concepts

“…These strategies include group projects that require students to design a study, collect and analyze data, interpret their results, write a coherent and well-argued report, and share their findings in an oral presentation (Smith, 1998). It is commonly accepted that students always learn best when they are actively engaged in working on real-world problems (Sole & Weinberg, 2017). Onwuegbuzie (2000) voiced a valid concern that non-cognitive variables such as students' attitudes, feelings, beliefs and perceptions may counteract the learning atmosphere that statistics instructors attempt to create.…”

Encouraging Significant Learning in Mathematical Statistics through Portfolios of Learning Evidence and Interview Assessments

“…They improve communication skills and confidence, and aid students to recall and use the correct mathematical terminology (Sole, 2012). Portfolios provide a rich, archived record of work for sharing with peers and prospective employers (Sole & Weinberg, 2017). This research suggests that portfolios of learning evidence, when coupled with oral interview assessments, will more likely create significant learning experiences for mathematical statistics students than traditional assessments.…”