WWW RESOURCES FOR TEACHING STATISTICS
Robin H. Lock
Mathematics Department
St. Lawrence University
Canton, NY 13617 USA
rlock@vm.stlawu.edu
OUTLINE FOR THE TALK
Presented at
TECHNOLOGY IN STATISTICS EDUCATION
A One-Day Conference for Teachers of Statistics
Sponsored by
Boston Chapter of the American
Statistical Association
Saturday, March 28, 1998 at Babson College
1. Introduction
2. On-line Course Materials
3. On-line Texts
4. JAVA Demonstrations
5. Electronic Journals
6. Electronic Discussion Lists
7. Data, Data, and More Data
7.1 Dataset Archives
7.2 Pages of Links to Datasites
7.3 Government and Official Agencies
7.4 Data About the Web
7.5 Textbook data
8. Miscellaneous Links
9. Conclusion
Section 1 - INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this paper is to direct browsers/readers to websites that
typify the various sorts of resources which are currently available via
the World Wide Web to help support statistics instruction. We assume that
you are accessing this version on-line with a browser which enables you
to check out the resources and links that you find most interesting. Due
to the rapidly evolving nature of the Web, some links may no longer be
available, some may have radically modified content, and new resources
are appearing at a steady rate. We will update these links periodically
to try to provide a current snapshot of the status of WWW resources for
teaching statistics. Your assistance in pointing out dead links and suggesting
additional resources to be included is greatly appreciated. Comments can
be sent to rlock@vm.stlawu.edu.
Section 2- On-line Course Materials
More and more instructors are providing course materials to their students
through websites. In addition to providing convenient access for students,
these pages can be perused by instructors at other institutions looking
for hints and ideas to improving their own courses.
General Introductory
AP Statistics (High School)
Linear Models
Multivariate
Business/Management
Psychology
Education
Lots of Courses
Section 3- On-line Texts
Several individuals and groups have undertaken ambitious projects to develop
statistics textbooks that can be accessed via the Web. Some examples...
Section 4- JAVA Demonstrations
The emergence of JAVA as a platform-independent Web programming language
has encouraged individuals to develop interactive demonstration software
which can be accessed over the Web. NOTE: Although you can link to these
sites with almost any Web browser, you must use a JAVA-capable browser
to see and execute the applets.
Some of our favorite individual JAVA applets (selected from the sites
listed below):
-
Guessing
Correlations - a neat "game" to show the relationship between correlations
and scatterplots - ten minutes should get the ideas across to almost any
student. Part of the CUWU Statistical Program at Illinois-Champaign-Urbana.
-
Regression
- see the effects of adding an outlier (Webster West - S. Carolina).
-
Histogram
- check the effect of bin size on Old Faithful data (Webster West - S.
Carolina).
-
Effect
of a "Small" Effect - visualization of the impact of a difference in
group means on job candidate selection (Mark Lane - Rice).
-
Power
of a Hypothesis Test - nice graphical look at power for a test of a
mean (Todd Ogden - S. Carolina).
-
Monty Hall
Problem - as implemented at UIUC lets you see how everyone else has
done, while the
-
Let's
Make a Deal version done by Webster West is a bit quicker to play and
includes an explanation.
The sites below contain collections of JAVA applets or links to applets
at various locations which are relevant to statistics instruction.
Statistics Packages available as JAVA applications over the Web:
-
Statlets
- a multi-featured JAVA-based statistics package, with free WWW access
for small datasets (10 variables x 100 cases). Produced by NWP Associates,
Inc.
-
WebStat
- created by Webster West at the University of South Carolina.
-
Statiscope
- a one page univariate stat pakage done by Mikael Bonnier - Lund, Sweden.
Non-java demonstrations: Java is not the only method for showing "live"
demonstrations
Section 5- Electronic Journals & Newsletters
Section 6 - Electronic Discussion Lists
These e-lists allow instructors to share questions, ideas and announcements
related to teaching statistics, practicing statistics, and statistical
computing. Although e-mail discussion lists are part of the wider
Internet resources, the websites which archive the messages also provide
good resources for searching through past discussions.
Archives
of Apstat-l This list was set-up to support high school
teachers doing an Advanced Placement course in Statistics. Lots of
good conversation about teaching an introductory course.
Archives
of Edstat-l (and several other discussion lists) are maintained by
the JSE Information
Service. This was one of the first electronic discussion lists devoted
to teaching issues. To subscribe send the message
subscribe edstat-l Your Name
to listserv@jse.stat.ncsu.edu.
You may also participate through UseNet News at sci.stat.edu..
Mike
Fuller's List of Statistical Lists A number of other e-mail discussion
lists are maintained for specific countries (e.g. Australia, Brazil,
Italy, New Zealand), statistical topics (e.g. Bayesian methods,
experimental design, time series analysis), subject areas (e.g.
biometry, geography, econometrics), and software packages (e.g.
Minitab, SPSS, SAS).
Section 7- Data, Data, and More Data
Need an example of a regression which is drastically altered by an influential
outlier? Want to find some data to illustrate descriptive statistics which
will appeal to students interested in environmental issues? Looking for
a multivariate dataset to serve as the basis for next week's midterm exam?
Have a student who loves horse racing and wants to use data from past runnings
of the Kentucky Derby for her project? The Web is the place to find loads
of data sources, often in downloadable formats.
We'll divide our look at Web data into different types of resources:
7.1 Dataset Archives
7.2 Pages of Links to Datasites
7.3 Government and Official Agencies
7.4 Data About the Web
7.5 Textbook data
Section 7.1- Dataset Archives
Section 7.2- Pages of Links to Datasites
Section 7.3- Government & Official Agencies
Data
There's tons of data produced by various govenment departments, although
it often takes a bit of digging to find it.
The
World Factbook - produced by the CIA.
Lots of statistics for each country in the world. Similar information
could be found in a good almanac, but students seem to like browsing for
it on the Web.
Bureau of Labor Statistics
- lots of economic data -- an especially good source for time series data.
Section 7.4- Data About the Web
Want to measure some feature of Web pages? You'll need a way to randomly
sample pages...
How do colleges and universities present themselves on the Web? Sample
from the list at
Section 7.5- Textbook Data
Data from a number of popular textbooks can now be found on the Web. Note
that in most cases, you'll need a copy of the book in order to place the
proper context with the data.
Section 8- Miscellaneous Links
Sites with good general links related to teaching statistics:
Need some questions for that next quiz or exam, check:
To find a statistical software provider's webpage:
Information on statistics textbooks (including reviews):
Other sites to start browsing
Section 9- Conclusion
The development of the World Wide Web has produced unprecedented global
means for instructors to easily share their ideas on ways to improve the
teaching of statistics. Although the volume of on-line material may seem
daunting, and the process of searching for worthwhile information can be
frustrating, the rewards, both for instructors and our students, can be
quite substantial. If current trends continue, universal access to the
Web should become easier and more common, on-line applications should become
even more sophisticated, and useful resources should continue to appear
at a steady rate.
Address for this paper:
or a onepage version at