IPS - Day 59

Today was a productive day as students worked on their analysis and posters to present their hand-washing study results. Many groups wanted to go back into the computer lab to create new graphs. by the end of the day just about every group had completed their posters. Next class we'll look at some of the results and discuss consistencies and discrepancies between the different study results.

I did spend some time at the beginning of the class discussing issues in statistical analysis. Students need to realize that there is not a set procedure or process for analyzing data. Students must consider the nature of their data (quantitative or categorical) and the question of interest they are attempting to address. The challenge is to think through these aspects and decide how to bring the data to bear to address the question of interest.

In looking at graphs being created last class, students were creating whatever graph they could grab without considering what data they had to work with and what question they were trying to address. As a result, many quantitative graphs (box plots and histograms) were being created for categorical data. I told the class that the most difficult aspect of statistics is filtering through what data you have and what question you are trying to answer in order to determine what you will do for your analysis.

I felt like students were really starting to understand statistical analysis and the idea of looking at their specific sample results compared to randomness.

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