IPS - Day 53

Today we continued work in the computer lab. The focus today was for students to analyze their data and to create appropriate graphs, summary statistics, and distributional comparisons for the chocolate melting experiment.

To start things off, I asked students what their poster should contain. This was a nice recap of how a statistical analysis is structured and reported. Students pointed out the need to state a purpose; to show the null and alternative hypotheses; to include graphs, tables, and analysis; and to provide a conclusion.

I tried to remind students that the conclusion needs to be based upon the analysis of data. They should also address the probability of seeing results such as theirs.

With that, I let students use the CPMP software to generate graphs, redistributions, and summary statistics. I informed the class that they would be assembling and presenting their posters tomorrow. With that, I let the class work and walked around providing assistance to different groups.

There are still quite a few students who just want to compare means and call the analysis good. I feel that I haven't adequately built the connection between the probability portion of the class and the analysis and conclusion that come from comparing random events and a specific outcome. I am thinking about how to tweak things throughout the semester so that this connection becomes more evident.

I'll know more how much students really understand the nature of statistical analysis when I see their posters tomorrow.

Visit the class summary for a student's perspective and to view the lesson slide.