Webinar: Tuesday, April 18 at 2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. EDT presenters are Kristen Roland and Jennifer Kaplan from University of Georgia
Title : Initial Findings about Graduate Teaching Assistants’ Training Needs to Foster Active Learning in Statistics
Please sign up to register, link to register : https://www.causeweb.org/cause/webinar/teaching/2017-04
Authors:
Abstract: As enrollment in introductory statistics courses across the country rises, more instructors for these courses are needed. Many statistics courses are now taught by Graduate Teaching Assistants ( GTA s). Little is known, however, about the training needs of GTAs to foster active learning and promote conceptual understanding, critical recommendations of the GAISE guidelines to improve undergraduate learning in statistics. This talk will discuss changes to our lab activities to incorporate GAISE recommendations of teaching for conceptual understanding, foster active learning, and integrating real data. We will also discuss initial findings concerning the struggles GTAs have with connecting their theoretical knowledge to conceptual ideas concerning confidence intervals for one population proportion. The material is based on work supported by NSF DUE 1504587
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Logistics : The webinar will be conducted using the GoToWebinar software platform. A computer with internet access is all you need. GoToWebinar offers audio participation through your computer microphone.
All registered webinar attendees will receive a confirmation email generated by the GoToWebinar system upon registering. This email includes a link to enter the webinar . Keep this confirmation email as you will use this link to enter the webinar – you will also be sent a reminder with the link two hours before the webinar begins. Once you leave the webinar, you cannot re-enter. If you have not used GoToWebinar before, please review the information below. The webinar will be recorded and the archived version will be available on-line within a few days following the presentation, if you are unable to attend.
For PC-based participants:
* Internet Explorer 7.0 or newer, Mozilla Firefox 4.0 or newer or Google Chrome 5.0 or newer. JavaScript must be enabled.
* Windows 8, 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server.
* Cable modem, DSL, or better Internet connection.
* Dual-core 2.4GHz CPU or faster with 2GB of RAM or more.
* Participants wishing to connect to audio using VoIP will need a fast Internet connection, a microphone and speakers (or USB headset).
For Mac-based participants:
* Safari 3.0 or newer, Firefox 4.0 or newer or Google Chrome 5.0 or newer. JavaScript must be enabled.
* Mac OS X 10.6 – Snow Leopard or newer.
* Intel processor with 1GB of RAM or more.
* Cable modem, DSL, or better Internet connection.
* Macs have built-in speakers and a microphone with ambient noise reduction that will work well for VoIP.
Submissions for the April CAUSE cartoon caption contest are due by Saturday April 1
Message: Now is a great time to get your students thinking about statistical issues by entering the CAUSE cartoon caption contest. The contest is accessible to all levels of students and the topics covered are as flexible as their imagination. A new cartoon is posted on the second day of each month and submissions are due the first of each month. Caption submissions for this month's contest may be submitted at https://www.causeweb.org/cause/caption-contest/april/2017/submissions and are due on Saturday April 1 .
Share a ride to USCOTS!
As USCOTS draws closer and participants are finalizing their travel plans, you might consider sharing a ride to get to State College. Many USCOTS attendees have air travel that takes them into one of the major airports within a few hours drive (Pittsburgh is 2.75 hours away, Baltimore is 3 hours, and Philadelphia is 3.5 hours away). If you need a ride from one of those airports, or can offer a ride, we will try to match and put people in contact with each other.
The ride share form is in the USCOTS registration system. If you have already registered, and want to share a ride, you can just log back in to your registration and edit the form. If you have not already registered, what are you waiting for? Don’t miss out on this terrific conference!
The CAUSE Cartoon Caption Contest for April is now taking entries
The Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education is happy to announce our eleventh Cartoon Caption Contest. Each month a cartoon, drawn by British cartoonist John Landers, will be posted for you and your students to suggest statistical captions. (note the cartoons are post on the 2nd day of each month)
The next cartoon and the entry rules for the contest ending April 1 are at
https://www.causeweb.org/cause/caption-contest/april/2017/submissions
The best captions will be posted on CAUSEweb and the winner(s) will receive their choice of a coffee mug or t-shirt imprinted with the cartoon or free registration to eCOTS 2018.
Enjoy.
March Results: We had 36 submissions for the March caption contest that featured a cartoon showing two professionals in front of a giant spinner with various variable names (age; shoe size; tobacco; fever; and vitamin C) - the spinner appears to be landing on "age". The March caption contest had two co-winners. The first was “Let's see what The Wheel of Non-Causal Relationships comes up with this month for strongest predictor of disease X,” written by Michael Posner from Villanova University and chosen for it’s theme about model building and the inferences that might be drawn in observational studies. The co-winning caption: “I'll go tell the patient it's her age making her sick today . Good thing I don't have to explain that it's her big feet!“ was written by Michele Balik-Meisner, a student at North Carolina State University was selected for its humorous nature and the ability to use the cartoon to discuss how evidence should be examined in light of the associated science (e.g. there might be science behind a causal relationship between some of the variables on the spinner and an illness – but certainly not with shoe size).
Honorable mentions this month go to Mickey Dunlap from University of Georgia for his caption “No no no! You randomize AFTER you select your research topic!”, to Larry Lesser from The University of Texas at El Paso for his caption “This isn't what I meant by 'random variable!” and to Greg Snow from Brigham Young University for his caption “We find this method of finding "significant" predictors to be quicker than using stepwise regression and it is even slightly more reproducible.” (useful in a course for majors that covers the caveats in using a model building procedure like stepwise regression).
Thanks to everyone who submitted a caption and congratulations to our Winners!
Webinar: Presented by Chester Ismay and Albert Y. Kim 02:00pm - 03:00pm Eastern Standard Time, March 14th, 2017
Title : A Fully Customizable Textbook for Introductory Statistics/Data Science Courses
Please sign up to register, link to register : https://www.causeweb.org/cause/webinar/teaching/2017-03
Authors: Chester Ismay and Albert Y. Kim
Abstract:
Short Description/Abstract: This webinar will provide a guide to creating a user-adaptable electronic textbook incorporating data visualization, data science, and other relevant pedagogical concepts into your introductory statistics course. We present our own introductory statistics and data science textbook available at http://moderndive.com that:
* Focuses on the entirety of the data/science pipeline from importing data to visualizing and summarizing data to inferential techniques and developing students as effective data storytellers
* Blurs the line between lecture and lab
* Uses freely available modern, rich, and complex data sources
* Leverages resampling and simulation to build statistical inference concepts
* Most importantly, provides complete customizability to the instructor and reproducibility to the student
We’ll discuss how collaboration and crowd-sourcing have and will play a role in our textbook going forward and other open-source materials we are creating to better support introductory statistics/data science students learning the skills and tools that statisticians/data scientists are using today.
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Logistics : The webinar will be conducted using the GoToWebinar software platform. A computer with internet access is all you need. GoToWebinar offers audio participation through your computer microphone.
All registered webinar attendees will receive a confirmation email generated by the GoToWebinar system upon registering. This email includes a link to enter the webinar . Keep this confirmation email as you will use this link to enter the webinar – you will also be sent a reminder with the link two hours before the webinar begins. Once you leave the webinar, you cannot re-enter. If you have not used GoToWebinar before, please review the information below. The webinar will be recorded and the archived version will be available on-line within a few days following the presentation, if you are unable to attend.
For PC-based participants:
* Internet Explorer 7.0 or newer, Mozilla Firefox 4.0 or newer or Google Chrome 5.0 or newer. JavaScript must be enabled.
* Windows 8, 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server.
* Cable modem, DSL, or better Internet connection.
* Dual-core 2.4GHz CPU or faster with 2GB of RAM or more.
* Participants wishing to connect to audio using VoIP will need a fast Internet connection, a microphone and speakers (or USB headset).
For Mac-based participants:
* Safari 3.0 or newer, Firefox 4.0 or newer or Google Chrome 5.0 or newer. JavaScript must be enabled.
* Mac OS X 10.6 – Snow Leopard or newer.
* Intel processor with 1GB of RAM or more.
* Cable modem, DSL, or better Internet connection.
* Macs have built-in speakers and a microphone with ambient noise reduction that will work well for VoIP.
Reminder: Submissions for the A-mu-sing contest are due by Friday the 10th
Feeling creative? Now is the time for you and your students to submit your ideas for jokes, cartoons, poems, songs, and videos to the CAUSE A-mu-sing contest. Help us build our collection of fun teaching items and have a chance to win part of the $1000 in prizes offered.