The Price is Right is a popular U.S. television game
show in which contestants play product-pricing games in
order to win prizes. Games involve some knowledge of
prices, but many involve the element of chance as well.
This paper describes a classroom activity I have designed
to help teach probability concepts to students in an
upper-level course. It is based on the television game
show The Price is Right. This exercise is designed
to help students better understand basic concepts such as
probability rules, common distributions, and expectations.
The exercise is intended for an upper-level statistics
course, but could easily be adapted for use in an
introductory statistics course as well. This paper
describes The Price is Right classroom activity in
detail. Student evaluations of the activity are also
Key Words: Classroom activity; Master Key; Plinko; Probability applications; Range Game.
Conceptual understanding of statistics is usually considered one of several aspects of
statistical knowledge. It refers to the ability of students to tie their knowledge of
statistical ideas and concepts into a network of interrelated propositions. In this study an
attempt was made to analyze the theory of descriptive regression analysis into its
constituent propositions. Content analysis of the work of nine students revealed that these
propositions were used by the students as cognitive units in their mental representation of
the statistical theory. Suggestions for a use of constituent propositions as learning tools are
Key Words: Cognitive units; Conceptual understanding; Statistics education; Statistical
An examination of publications of Sir Francis Galton and Karl Pearson revealed that Galton's
work on inherited characteristics of sweet peas led to the initial conceptualization of linear
regression. Subsequent efforts by Galton and Pearson brought about the more general
techniques of multiple regression and the product-moment correlation coefficient. Modern
textbooks typically present and explain correlation prior to introducing prediction problems
and the application of linear regression. This paper presents a brief history of how Galton
originally derived and applied linear regression to problems of heredity. This history
illustrates additional approaches instructors can use to introduce simple linear regression to
Key Words: Correlation; Francis Galton; History of statistics; Karl Pearson.
In 1993 the Statistics Department at Iowa State University entered into a collaborative
agreement with General Motors to develop and deliver a new sequence of courses titled
"Applied Statistics for Industry." This paper describes the development and content of
these courses as well as their method of delivery. In order to accommodate on campus
students as well as students at a distance, the course is presented live at Iowa State
University and by videotape delay at General Motors Technical Education sites in Michigan,
Ohio, Arizona and Mexico, and across the country at sites of other partner industries. Some
of the differences between a statistics course taught in the traditional campus setting and a
statistics course taught at a distance will be highlighted. Since there are two audiences (on
campus and off campus), several compromises are made in how the course is conducted.
These compromises, and their possible effects on students in both environments, are
discussed. A summary of how on and off campus students did in these courses over the past
five years is included.
Key Words: Assessment; Distance education; Industrial statistics; Videotape.
The probability unit in a first statistics course is difficult to teach because there is not much
time, the concepts and mechanics are difficult, and the students do not see the relevance of
learning it. Research by Cosmides and Tooby (1996) supports our findings that instructors
should avoid fractions and decimals and capitalize on students' affinity for counting things.
In addition, we avoid the use of normal tables at the beginning of our discussion of continuous
random variables by using uniform and triangular distributions. These ideas may be used in
traditionally structured classes or in group-based and activity-based classes.
Key Words: Cognition; Inquiry-based; Reform.
Teaching Bits: A Resource for Teachers of Statistics
This department features information sampled from a variety of sources
that may be of interest to teachers of statistics. Deb Rumsey abstracts
information from the literature on teaching and learning statistics, while Bill
Peterson summarizes articles from the news and other media that may be used
with students to provoke discussions or serve as a basis for classroom activities
or student projects.
Mitchell Watnik and Richard A. Levine
NFL Y2K PCA
The dataset associated with this paper is from the 2000 regular season of the National
Football League (NFL). We use principal components techniques to evaluate team "strength."
In some of our analyses, the first two principal components can be interpreted as measure
of "offensive" and "defensive" strengths, respectively. In other circumstances, the first
principal component compares a team against its opponents.
Key Words: Multivariate analysis; National Football League (NFL); Summary ranking