Playing Games with a Purpose: A New Approach to Teaching and Learning Statistics

该项目的研究人员正在开发、实施和评估基于网络的互动游戏和相应的调查实验室模块(实验室)，以有效地向本科生教授统计思维和科学探究的过程。每个以游戏为基础的实验在案例研究的背景下提出一个研究问题，并鼓励学生遵循完整的统计分析过程。这些材料包括为大学入门课程设计的为期一天或两天的活动，以及面向高水平本科课程的更复杂的项目。这些以游戏为基础的实验室为学生提供了早期机会，让他们体验研究科学家的角色，并了解统计学领域如何帮助促进科学知识的发展。该项目的智力价值在于，它通过将尖端的基于游戏的技术与现实的研究问题相结合，在学生学术生涯的多个阶段培养统计思维，从而为统计教育的学术做出了贡献。该方法采纳了美国数学协会和美国统计协会的建议，鼓励学生收集数据，确定适当的分析技术，使用技术，进行分析，做出推断，解释并展示结果。该项目通过创建一种新的教育模式感受到了更广泛的影响，该模式具有很大潜力影响统计教育的方向。特别是，基于游戏的实验室使学生能够探索个性化的研究问题和即时反馈，学生认为这些问题与他们游戏中的目标直接相关。为学生提供有趣的现实世界问题，展示统计学作为一门学科的知识内容和广泛适用性，鼓励学生考虑从事统计工作，或将统计思维融入任何职业。

The investigators on this project are developing, implementing, and evaluating interactive Web-based games and corresponding investigative laboratory modules (labs) to effectively teach statistical thinking and the process of scientific inquiry to undergraduate students. Each game-based lab presents a research question in the context of a case study and encourages students to follow a complete process of statistical analysis. These materials consist of one- or two-day activities designed for introductory college courses as well as more complex projects geared toward upper level undergraduate courses. The game-based labs provide early opportunities for students to experience the role of a research scientist and to understand how the field of statistics helps advance scientific knowledge. The intellectual merit of this project lies in its contribution to the scholarship of statistics education by combining cutting-edge game-based technology with realistic research problems to foster statistical thinking at multiple stages of a student's academic career. The approach embraces recommendations from the Mathematical Association of America and the American Statistical Association that encourage students to collect data, determine an appropriate technique for analysis, use technology, perform the analysis, make inferences, interpret and then present the results. The broader impacts of the project are felt through its creation of a new educational model that holds strong potential to influence the direction of statistics education. In particular the game-based labs enable the exploration of individualized research questions and just-in-time feedback that students recognize as directly related to the goals within their game. Providing students with intriguing real-world problems that demonstrate the intellectual content and broad applicability of statistics as a discipline encourages students to consider a career in statistics or to incorporate statistical thinking into any career.