Transforming Undergraduate Statistics Education at Primarily Undergraduate Institutions through Experiential Learning

该项目将资助一个名为SCHOLAR（组织领导者和学术研究人员的统计咨询帮助）的学生统计咨询小组。SCHOLAR将为学生提供在参与服务学习或体验式教育项目的同时学习统计学的机会。这将是一个学年的项目，由本科生组成，他们将合作完成由中央俄克拉何马大学（UCO）或社区组织的研究人员提交的跨学科项目。每年将有多达20名学生直接参与SCHOLAR，并通过高中招生访问和项目传播间接参与数百名学生。高中三年级学生和本科生将从不同的专业招收，并将在大一或大二进入该项目。SCHOLAR的目标是(1)增加主修或辅修统计学或数学的本科生的数量，特别是那些来自STEM中代表性不足的群体（例如美国原住民和女性）和第一代低收入学生；(2)通过教师和同伴指导，教本科生如何进行和报告研究，并为学生在STEM领域的职业或研究生学习做好准备；(3)为越来越多的关于体验式统计教育对本科生影响的研究做出贡献；(4)为UCO的其他教员和社会提供统计咨询服务。SCHOLAR将显著改变目前统计教学和研究的方法，特别是在涉及最近的高中毕业生和大学低年级学生的经验统计教育方面。它还将通过为本科生提供真正的研究和真实的数据，为改善STEM教育的新呼吁做出贡献。SCHOLAR学生将以顾问的身份与客户会面，收集和分析数据，并提供书面和口头的工作总结。他们还将被要求每年在地方和/或国家会议上发言。SCHOLAR的其他功能包括由同行、教师和研究人员指导学生；通过学生主导的研讨会提供教学机会；以及尽早接触各种正在进行的研究无论是在校内还是校外。学者活动对学生的影响将被跟踪和评估，结果将通过出版物和专业会议报告。SCHOLAR将成为使用体验式教育来教授统计学的示范项目，特别是在主要的本科院校。未来的计划是将SCHOLAR模型扩展到其他机构，并扩展到包括数学生物学、运筹学和高性能计算在内的其他学科。

This project will fund a student statistical consulting group, called SCHOLAR (Statistical Consulting Help for Organizational Leaders and Academic Researchers). SCHOLAR will give students the opportunity to study statistics while participating in service learning or experiential education projects. It will be an academic year program, staffed by undergraduate students who will work collaboratively on interdisciplinary projects submitted by researchers at the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) or organizations in the community. Up to 20 students will be directly involved with SCHOLAR each year and hundreds indirectly through high school recruiting visits and project dissemination. High school seniors and undergraduate students will be recruited from a variety of majors and will enter the program in their freshman or sophomore years. The goals of SCHOLAR are (1) to increase the number of undergraduate students majoring or minoring in statistics or mathematics, especially those from underrepresented groups in STEM (e.g. Native Americans and women) and first-generation low-income students; (2) to teach undergraduate students, through faculty and peer mentoring, how to conduct and report research, and to prepare students for careers or graduate study in STEM fields; (3) to contribute to the growing body of research concerning the effects of experiential statistics education on undergraduate students; and (4) to provide statistical consulting services to other faculty at UCO and the community at large.SCHOLAR will significantly change the current methods of statistics instruction and research, especially with respect to the involvement of recent high school graduates and college underclassmen in experiential statistics education. It will also contribute to the renewed call for improvement in STEM education by providing undergraduate students access to real research and real data. SCHOLAR students will meet with clients as consultants, collect and analyze data, and provide written and oral summaries of their work. They will also be required to present each year at a local and/or national conference. Other SCHOLAR features include student mentoring by peers, faculty, and researchers; teaching opportunities through student-led seminars; and early exposure to a variety of research being conducted both on- and off-campus. The effects of SCHOLAR activities on students will be tracked and evaluated and the outcomes will be reported through publications and presentations at professional meetings. SCHOLAR will be a model program for the use of experiential education to teach statistics, especially at primarily undergraduate institutions. Future plans are to expand the SCHOLAR model to other institutions, and to branch out to incorporate other disciplines including mathematical biology, operations research, and high-performance computing.