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Teaching Statistics
Teaching Statistics
October 13, 2021

Proficiency with statistics is one of the many valuable skills sociology majors can gain through their studies. It connects students to the empirical basis of the discipline and represents a marketable job skill. Sometimes viewed with dread, the resources in this TRAILS Collection demonstrate that teaching statistics can be engaging, and even fun.

Hand holding white digital tablet displaying blue stacked bar graph. White keyboard in background.
JoEllen Pederson, Patrick McGrady
What Test Do I Use? A Matching Game for Reinforcing Comprehension of Statistical Test Selection
December 6, 2019
Subject Area(s):
Statistics
Resource Type(s):
Class Activity
Class Level(s):
College 300
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:
The purpose of this in-class activity is to help students apply knowledge about what variables, types of measurements, can be used with independent samples t-test, dependent samples t-test, chi-squared tests, one-way ANOVA tests, repeated measures ANOVA tests,...
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Warren Waren
Misery in Methods: Moderating Negative Emotions of both Students and Teachers in Quantitative Undergraduate Methods Classes
October 25, 2019
Subject Area(s):
Statistics
Resource Type(s):
Essay
Class Level(s):
College 400
Class Size(s):
Medium
Abstract:
Undergraduate quantitative methods courses can be miserable. In this piece, I offer some solutions from social psychology and my own experience that address the anxieties of both students and professors as they begin an undergraduate quantitative methods course....
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May Takeuchi, Alex Takeuchi
Hamburger Statistics – Introduction to T-Tests
April 2, 2019
Subject Area(s):
Statistics
Resource Type(s):
Assignment
Class Level(s):
College 300
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:
Teaching materials on quantitative analysis are often stereotyped as "dry," "boring," "difficult" or even "intimidating" by some undergraduate students. To make the entry level inferential statistics more approachable to those students, this assignment uses...
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May Takeuchi, Alexander Takeuchi
Pizza Statistics
March 9, 2018
Subject Area(s):
Statistics
Resource Type(s):
Assignment
Class Level(s):
College 200
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:
Teaching materials on quantitative analysis are often stereotyped as "dry," "boring," "difficult" or even "intimidating" by some undergraduate students. To make entry level descriptive statistics more approachable to those students, this assignment uses...
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Samuel Aaron Torres
Fake News or Genuine Article? Evaluating News Media Claims Using Bivariate Analyses in SPSS
December 4, 2017
Subject Area(s):
Statistics
Resource Type(s):
Assignment, Class Activity
Class Level(s):
College 400
Class Size(s):
Medium
Abstract:
Although learning objectives for social statistics courses typically include informed consumption of everyday statistical claims, students are rarely provided explicit opportunities to practice this skill. This is unfortunate because the journalistic accounts to...
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Rena Cornell Zito
Using Real Estate Websites to Learn Measures of Central Tendency
July 22, 2014
Subject Area(s):
Statistics
Class Level(s):
Any Level
Class Size(s):
Medium
Abstract:
This assignment, which requires students to use real-world data on home prices to generate and analyze measures of central tendency, can be adapted as an in-class assignment or homework assignment for undergraduate research methods or social statistics courses....
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Aya Kimura Ida
Self-Graded SPSS Lab Exercises
January 8, 2014
Subject Area(s):
Statistics
Resource Type(s):
Assignment
Class Level(s):
College 400
Class Size(s):
Medium
Abstract:
Adopting self-grading as a learning tool, this set of four lab exercises helps students practice using SPSS techniques they learned in class and get used to interpreting the univariate and bivariate results (e.g., proportions, means, standard deviations, independent...
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