80 likes | 217 Views
Course Variations on a Theme : Strengthening the Quantitative Reasoning of First-Year Students. The Psychology of Numbers : A Fair and Balanced Look at Statistical Reporting. Mija Van Der Wege Carleton College. The Plan. Course Context Course Objectives Course Topics Course Assignments
E N D
Course Variations on a Theme: Strengthening the Quantitative Reasoning of First-Year Students The Psychology of Numbers: A Fair and Balanced Look at Statistical Reporting • Mija Van Der Wege • Carleton College
The Plan • Course Context • Course Objectives • Course Topics • Course Assignments • Lessons Learned
Course Context • First-year, first-term seminar • Discussion oriented • Writing rich • Focused on introducing students to college-level thinking and skills
Course Objectives • Learn about scientific hypothesis testing, conditional probability, a sense of orders of magnitude, and experimental design • Learn about psychological representations and processing of numbers • Practice effective use of numbers in rhetorical argument • Develop a habit of mind of critiquing numerical evidence
Course Topics • Autism Epidemic Case Study • Methods and Statistics • Writing with Numbers • Cognitive Representations of Number • Framing and Response Biases • Ethics
Course Assignments • Numbers in the News • Critically Reading Journalistic Reports of Research • Comparing Journalistic Reports to Primary Sources of Research • Writing about Primary Sources of Research • Numbers in the News Magazine
Lessons Learned • Approaches to numbers (Joel Best) • The Naive • The Cynical • The Critical • Communication • Appreciation for perspective and bias in writers • Appreciation for perspective and bias in readers • Creating a habit of mind
Questions? • http://serc.carleton.edu/nnn/quantitative_writing/examples/28281.html