This paper is from Session 6C: Interdisciplinarity and innovation

which comes under Topic 6: Innovation and reform in teaching probability within statistics

Using re-sampling and sampling variability in an applied context as a basis for making statistical inferences with confidence

Presenter

• Luis Saldanha (University of Quebec at Montreal, Canada)

Co-author

• Michael McAllister (Arizona State University, United States)

Abstract

We describe an instructional sequence that engaged a class of 9th grade students in making statistical inferences on the basis of distributions of a sample statistic. The sequence involved a scenario and tasks that entailed comparing samples of two types of organisms on a common attribute. Students engaged in: 1) making sense of the scenario and a TinkerPlots™ simulation that produced distributions of a sample statistic, 2) examining and interpreting a sequence of such distributions in relation to increases in sample size, and 3) drawing a conclusion about the attribute in the sampled population and assessing their confidence of the conclusion. We highlight aspects of students’ understandings of what an empirical sampling distribution represented in terms of the scenario’s context, and their abilities to track the multi-tiered re-sampling process that began with a population and culminated with distributions of the sample statistic.