Learning From the Scientist's Lab Book: Designing Interactive Dynamic Documents for Teaching Statistical Thinking and Practice

该项目为从事以数据为导向的科学研究的统计研究人员提供了一种途径，通过电子实验室笔记本与统计教育界分享他们的方法。这个多维、多分辨率的结构化文档捕获了统计员分析背后的想法、活动、计算，最重要的是，捕获了思维过程，实际上创建了一个反映整个数据分析过程的全面案例研究。该项目的一个关键组成部分是将R编程环境集成到Web浏览器中，从而产生一个交互式教学界面，通过该界面，学生可以i)探索研究人员考虑的分析的替代方法，ii)执行假设情景，以及iii)从讲师嵌入到笔记本中的教程中学习。通过教育工作者和研究人员的合作网络，该项目正在建立一个完整的、现代的、高质量的科学分析图书馆。该项目的智力价值不仅在于将R编程环境集成到Web基础设施中的技术步骤，还在于将当前的研究项目纳入NSF资助的面向本科生的“统计研究探索”项目中。参加该项目的研究人员代表学术界、科研院所和工业界，正在研究各种前沿课题，包括全球气候模型、建筑物内无线信号的地理定位、加州高速公路交通模式、科罗拉多州百年一遇的洪水事件、污染和死亡率。该项目正在产生更广泛的影响，通过改变统计课程，促进使用统计思维来解决重要的科学问题，并接受数据分析的做法及其在通过科学探究促进学习方面的作用。该项目的技术创新还支持积极从事研究的统计学家和统计教育界之间的合作模式。最后，电子实验室笔记本很容易被纳入各种课程，包括统计学方法和顶峰课程。

This project is providing a way for statistics researchers involved in data-driven scientific inquiry to share their methods with the statistics education community via an electronic lab notebook. This multi-dimensional, multi-resolution structured document captures the ideas, activities, computations, and most importantly, the thought processes underlying the statistician's analysis, creating, in effect, a comprehensive case study that reflects the entire data analytic process. A key component of the project is the integration of the R programming environment within a Web browser, resulting in an interactive instructional interface through which students can i) explore alternative approaches to an analysis that a researcher considered, ii) perform what-if scenarios, and iii) learn from tutorials that the instructor embeds in the notebook. Through a collaborative network of educators and researchers the project is building a library of full-length, modern, high-quality scientific analyses. The intellectual merit of the project lies not only in the technical step of integrating the R programming environment into the Web's infrastructure, but also in incorporating current research projects that are the subject of investigation in the NSF-funded "Explorations in Statistics Research" program for undergraduates. Representing academia, research institutes, and industry, researchers participating in this program are studying a variety of cutting-edge topics including global climate models; geo-location via wireless signals in a building; patterns in California highway traffic; 100-year flood events in Colorado; pollution; and mortality. The project is exercising broader impacts by transforming the statistics curriculum to foster the use of statistical thinking to solve important scientific problems and to embrace the practice of data analysis and its role in promoting learning through science inquiry. The project's technological innovation also supports a model of cooperation between research-active statisticians and the community of statistics educators. Finally, the electronic lab notebooks are readily incorporated into a variety of courses, including statistical methods and capstone courses.