Course Dates and Format
The course will earn each participant three hours of graduate credit, offered through the University of South Carolina 2007. The credit will be given for the special topics course:
STAT 599: AP Statistics for Teachers (3) (Prereq: current secondary high school teacher certification) A thorough study of the topics covered on the AP Statistics Examination and methods for teaching them. Emphasis is placed on hands-on statistical activities in an effort to illustrate critical, statistical thinking and facilitate deeper understanding.
Credit will be given to those participants who show competence in the subject matter. Daily attendance is necessary, but not sufficient, to earn credit for STAT 599. (Note that a proposal for a permanent course is being submitted, and the credit may be given for STAT 650 instead of STAT 599).
The in-class course instruction will be supplemented by making handouts available which will cover some elementary topics in statistics. These handouts will be made available online beginning May 15, 2007 for the teachers to review before the beginning of the in-class segment. The in-class portion runs from Monday, July 9 to Friday, July 27, 2007 (with July 26 reserved for studying for the final exam) for a total of 77 contact hours. Classes will begin at 9:00am and end at 4:00pm, with a break for lunch from 12:00 to 1:30. Both the morning and afternoon sessions will consist of a lecture component, but may also include problem solving sessions, hands-on laboratory experiences, and group activities. Emphasis will be given to noting areas that students often have particular difficulty, and strategies for overcoming these difficulties will be discussed. Additional individual assistance will be available from 4:00pm until 5:00pm.
Roles of Faculty and Master Teacher
The master teacher and faculty members will alternate the instructional roles so that their individual strengths are best utilized. In addition, the instructors will make themselves available after class to help participants with problems and exercises. With respect to evaluation, both the faculty members and master teacher will work together to assign and grade homework, assign and write the exam, and assign final grades.
Course Content and Topic Areas
The content of the AP Statistics workshop course is equivalent to an introductory non-calculus based college course in Statistics. The detailed topics described in the syllabus are chosen to cover the four major themes of the AP Statistics Course content given in the Advanced Placement Course Description Booklet. These areas are:
Exploring Data: Making use of the calculator and the computer to study patterns or departures from patterns in data; Describing data by numerical and graphical techniques; Examining and understanding relationships in bivariate data.
Planning and Conducting a Study: The importance of careful planning of a survey or statistical experiment is emphasized. The topics covered are deciding what and how to measure variables and conducting surveys and experiments. Sampling bias and questionnaire bias are illustrated via examples and case studies.
Probability and Simulation Methods: Statistical data do not occur haphazardly; instead, they display values that follow a certain model. Probability models are tools for anticipating what the distribution of data from an experiment should look like. In this section, the basic concepts of probability are covered, including some familiar distributions. The notion of a sampling distribution is introduced by use of simulation.
Statistical Inference: This theme brings together all of the first three--collecting data, describing the data and building a statistical model allows one to draw conclusions from the data. The process of inference, or drawing conclusions about a population, is never without some level of uncertainty. In this section, inferential topics such as confidence interval estimation and tests of significance will be taught.
Note: Throughout each day, participants will work problems (individually and in groups) using the calculator and the computer which illustrate the topics of the day. There will also be a homework assignment given at the end of each day.
Daily Activities
Each day will contain both a morning session and an afternoon session. During most sessions, there will be a lecture component, in which new topics are presented, and some type of activity. Examples of activities are hands-on statistical experiments, problem-solving sessions and possibly guest speakers. We also plan to have several short breaks throughout the day.