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Pedagogical simulations with StatCrunch

R. Webster West Integrated Analytics LLC Texas A&M University. Pedagogical simulations with StatCrunch. Applets abound. Applets are small Web-based interactive programs written typically in Java or Flash.

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Pedagogical simulations with StatCrunch

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  1. R. Webster West Integrated Analytics LLC Texas A&M University Pedagogical simulations with StatCrunch

  2. Applets abound • Applets are small Web-based interactive programs written typically in Java or Flash. • To steal a phrase from Apple, “Pick a statistical topic and there is an applet for that.” • There is a great deal of variation in terms of quality and in terms of how applets are used within courses, but a fair question to ask is: “What does the average student really get out of using applets?”

  3. A confidence interval applet http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~west/ph/meanci.html

  4. Questions about this applet • Do students really understand how to manipulate the underlying data structure using the applet’s widgets? • How much instructor guidance is required? Can students use the applet on their own? • Should the applet presentation be followed with an exercise? • Can students comprehend the large number of educational objectives targeted by the applet?

  5. Other approaches • Would a programmatic simulation written in a language like R be a better way of teaching these concepts? • Probably not. The typical student has no ability to digest computer code, and they certainly can not write their own code. • A few simple additions to the StatCrunch package allows for a middle ground approach between the mindless clicking and complex programming alternatives.

  6. The StatCrunch approach • Almost all StatCrunch procedures offer a Group By option which makes it simple to compute/compare results for different groups. • Two newer ingredients: • The ability to split and stack simulated data. • The ability to save results from numerous procedures to the data table so that further computations are possible. • Add these items together and you have a powerful recipe for doing pedagogical simulations in StatCrunch.

  7. Today’s StatCrunch demo • A confidence interval simulation in StatCrunch • A short glimpse at future capabilities Other possible StatCrunch simulations: • Sampling distributions and the CLT • Hypothesis testing • Sampling distributions of regression estimates • Resampling

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