Simulations are becoming more important in introductory statistics courses because of new emphasis on resampling procedures (which are now included in the US Common Core for high school students). There are many applets (and apps) that will perform simple simulations and resampling. All too often students don’t understand what is being done. For example, they ignore the difference between resampling for a confidence interval and resampling for a hypothesis test. More complex simulations require more thinking and capable software. At an introductory level for a probability or statistics class, R (free) or SAS (expensive) are often too complex for students to use effectively. I'll show how simple three- or four-line execs and macros in Minitab can do the job effectively, and further serve to eliminate the “black box” of many applets. Students who can perform these understand the situation!
(Monday 14th, 13:45-15:45) In session C3B
Patricia B. Humphrey (United States)