This paper is from Session 9I: Gathering and modeling data
which comes under Topic 9: Technology and multimedia in statistics education
Paper 9I1 (Wednesday 11th, 11:00-12:30)
Using Personal Activity Data in an Undergraduate Statistics Course
Presenter
- Kady Schneiter (Utah State University, United States)
Co-authors
- Lacy Christensen (Utah State University, United States)
- Victor R. Lee (Utah State University, United States)
Abstract
Personal activity data (PAD) obtained from activity trackers has the potential to stimulate thinking about statistics in a way that other forms of data, even other real data, cannot. Because the data come from the students’ own activities, they are intimately familiar with them and able to reason about patterns and variations in the data based on their own experience. We describe our experiences using personal activity trackers (specifically Fitbit activity tracking devices) to engage students in statistical thinking in an undergraduate statistics course and discuss our findings about how PAD can be naturally integrated into the introductory statistics curriculum to promote student interest and engagement, and to facilitate statistical thinking.