Do Your Students Know This

1
Do Your Students Know This?

• Workshop at
• NZAMT10
• by
• Marie Fitch
• Institute of Information and Mathematical
  Sciences
• Albany
• 27 September 2007

2

• Overview
• Introduction
• Who are our students?
• Why the test?
• Setting
• A look at the test
• Where were the difficulties?
• Feedback

3

• Introduction
• First year Statistics.
• Business Statistics taught on three campuses (and
  extramural)
• Introductory Statistics Albany
• Prerequisite(s)  A school mathematics background
  of Year 12 (NCEA Level 2) is recommended for
  100-level Statistics papers.
• Staff
• Input from staff across all campuses
• Collated by me

4

• Who are our students?
• Albany Semester 1 2007
• Questionnaire at first lecture 60 return rate
• 70 in first year of university study

5

• Who are our students?
• Median age 20
• Ages ranged from 17 to 58

6

• Who are our students?
• 13S are those who have studied Year 13 statistics
• 13C did Calculus (only) at Year 13
• Weak have Year 11, no statistics or overseas
  study (anecdotally statistics is
  new to most from overseas)

7

• Who are our students?
• Which statement best reflects your current
  feelings about this paper? (circle)
• looking forward to it relaxed anxious
• confident indifferent terrified
• 50 positive
• 25 negative

8

• Who are our students?

9

• Why the test?
• Concern over arithmetic errors decreasing marks
  in final exam
• Desire to identify and help those students with a
  weak background
• Desire to line up our teaching with background of
  students
• Decision to include nothing above NCEA Level 1

10

• Setting
• First lecture
• 20 minutes (approximately)
• Designed so as not to require calculators

11

• A look at the test
• Do you have the expected Mathematics skills for
  this course?
• Yes? Wonderful!
• No? Wed like to help
• This test is designed as a check that you have
  the basic mathematics skills used in this course.
  Specific help clinics will be run in weeks 2 and
  5 of Semester for those who discover they need
  help with any of these skills. We would strongly
  encourage you to attend the clinics offered to
  improve your skills. Our experience suggests
  that those who make that effort end up enjoying
  the course and gain a lot from it.

12

• Where were the difficulties?
• For next year two questions will be removed
• Almost no students understood 3.29E-06 (q 3)
• Almost no students know what an Ogive is (q 23c)
• Other areas of difficulty
• BEDMAS (q1,2,10)
• Some fraction ideas (q 5d, 8)
• Slope of a line (q 16a,18)
• Reading values off a graph (q19)
• Histogram (q23e)
• Mean dont round to a whole number (q21b)
• Range a subtraction required (q21c)

13

• Feedback
• To students
• Clinics
• Links to mathfirst http//mathsfirst.massey.ac.nz/
  
• Yours please!
• Level?
• No calculators?
• Anything else?
• Thanks
• mfitch_at_massey.ac.nz