I Resolve to Check Out these Resources for Teaching Statistics and Math

As anyone who reads this blog often knows,

a. I like Chardonnay

b. You need to get a life

c. The purpose is for me to write down stuff I want to remember later. Serendipitously, this often turns out to be stuff other people would like to know as well.

If you teach statistics …

Teacher’s Domain data analysis and probability section – this is for younger students, most of the videos and lesson plans here are for grades 4-8, with a few that are lower or higher. On the other hand, I was very impressed with the quality. The Spoiled One watched the video on interpreting line graphs and commented,

“Yeah, this is less boring than that stuff you usually have me watch.”

which is as good an endorsement as a parent usually gets on anything from a teenager. (Can I get an “Amen”?)

Rice Virtual Lab in Statistics – is another one that has been around for over a decade and when I found it I thought, “Oh my, God, where have you been all of my life?”. It has examples from actual studies with research design, code in SAS and JMP, output, interpretation and you can even have it read to you by the author. I’d put this solidly at the undergraduate level.

Stats2Lab at Grinnell College – is a nice example of what Vygotsky would call scaffolding for students in their second course in statistics. It provides research designs using games, with detailed procedures for data collection, hypotheses and even suggestions on literature review.

Socialresearchmethods.net – as the name implies, it is not only statistics, but it does include  a free online statistics textbook that is good, a book in simulations, an application to help you choose the correct statistic and many full-text articles for download.

Three that I mentioned last month but I am mentioning them again so that I don’t forget ….

Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education, a.k.a. causeweb.org – where have you been all of my life? Don’t let the name fool you, there are workshops, webinars and resources for you whether you teach high school or graduate level statistics as well.

Against all odds – statistics videos done in 1989, but still timely. Seriously, a normal distribution hasn’t changed much.

SAS Curriculum Pathways – I mention this again, even though I mentioned it in a previous post, simply because I knew about it for years and never looked at it. It’s really cool. I’ve recommended it to several teachers I know who have never looked at it, either. I know why, too. We are all busy. I knocked off work at 1:30 to write this blog, so I can relate. Seriously, though, this site has explanations, examples, problems. Like a textbook, but better, and free. My favorite was their part on box and whisker plots. I’m going through a graphs with bars period in my life. Everything I’ve seen here is high school level or below. May-be at the introductory undergraduate level.

If I ever have time (how many things in life do I preface with that?) …. some day I would like to create a statistics course with no textbook, just access to online resources and activities. I’d also cut the lecture time in half and just have them read some of the great resources on the web, then we’d discuss those in class.