A Way of Integrating Civic Learning into Statistics Courses

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A Way of Integrating Civic Learning into
Statistics Courses

• Benjamin Winchester, Center for Small Towns
• July 6, 2006
• International Conference on Teaching Statistics
• Salvador, Brazil

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University of Minnesota, Morris

• Public liberal arts college
• Morris 5,000 residents in rural setting
• 1,900 undergraduate students
• Land grant responsibility

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Civic Learning

• A pedagogy that utilizes community service,
  community-based research, or civic engagement
  activities along with regular reflective
  activities and assignments to meet both course
  goals and identified community needs and to teach
  students the skills they need to grow as
  thoughtful citizens and leaders.

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Phase I Community Service Learning

• Community organizations provide data and problems
• Course component involving service learning
• Advanced courses integrated with component
• Combinatorial Mathematics, Regression, Design of
  Experiments
• Problems Snow plow routes, poverty, traffic
  congestion, wetland bird management
• A coordinator is necessary to facilitate
  relationships between University and Community

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Phase II Civic Engagement Workbook

• Rural data sources replace homework problems
• Minnesota has excellent repository of data for
  employment, poverty, education, and environmental
  issues
• These problems are shared through outreach
  partners
• Found to be difficult to maintain

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Phase III Media Reports

• Goals
• Enhance student learning of statistical concepts
• Concentrate on the higher level of integration in
  collaborative structures
• Integrate civic learning with broader
  institutional goals

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Identify Data Source and Problem
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Data Entry Chart Making
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Interpretation

• A written paragraph synthesizing the data with
  context.
• May require additional research

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Review and Submission

• Peer review
• Electronic submission
• Review by Center for Small Towns course grading
• Publication

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Benefits

• Community
• Analysis of local data
• Assists with decisions
• University
• Visibility
• Enhanced student learning

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Conclusion

• Media reports are more effective and efficient
  than previous efforts
• Integration of teaching, research, public service
• www.centerforsmalltowns.org/statbook/maps/index.ht
  m