Teaching Statistical Thinking:
Statistical Investigation Process, Multivariable Thinking, and Simulation-Based Inference
Seminole State College of Florida
Altamonte Springs
Friday, Jan 30 – Saturday, Jan 31, 2026
Presenters: Beth Chance and Jill VanderStoep
Department of Statistics
Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo
bchance@calpoly.edu
Retired from Department of Mathematics & Statistics, Hope College – Holland, MI
vanderstoepj@hope.edu
Workshop goals are to help faculty participants to teach introductory statistics effectively in accordance with the American Statistical Association’s GAISE recommendations by:
Immersing participants in hands-on activities for introducing students to statistical concepts, particularly with regard to:
a. Statistical investigation process
b. Multivariable thinking
c. Simulation-based inference
Providing considerable experience with freely available technology tools for exploring statistical concepts and analyzing real data
Discussing assessment items and techniques, along with common student misconceptions
Forming a community of statistics teachers to offer on-going mutual support, sharing of resources and ideas
Workshop Schedule
Day 1 (January 30)
9:00 – 9:40 Introductions and History of Statistics Education
9:40 – 10:15 - Preliminaries: 6 steps/variability/probability & Monty Hall
Break 10:15 – 10:25
10:25 – 11:10 Chance models (one proportion)- Helper or hinder
11:10 – 11:40 Confidence intervals (one proportion) – Kissing right
11:40 – 12:20 One quantitative variable – Sampling words
12:20 - 1:20 pm Lunch & Discussion
1:30 – 2:00 Association and confounding – COVID/Vax status/age
2:00 – 2:30 Inference for comparing groups – Sleep deprivation
Animation in powerpoints using two means (might work better if you download first as .pptx)
2:30 – 3:15 Multiple groups – Brain size and activity
3:15 – 4:00 Correlation – Draft lottery
Day 2 (January 31)
9:00 – 9:30 Multivariable thinking – House size, cost, location & SOV diagram
9:30 – 10:00 Multiple variables – FEV
10:00 – 10:30 Projects
10:30 – 11:00 Messy data: CPS
11:00 – 11:30 Assessment
11:30 – 12:00 Implementation suggestions & questions
Some resources:
Expanding and assessing the art and practice of statistical thinking (NSF Grant #2235355): https://sites.google.com/view/eaapost
Join our Google group: https://groups.google.com/g/eaapost
ISI texts: https://www.isi-stats.com/
GAISE guidelines: https://www.amstat.org/education/GAISE/
RossmanChance Applet collection: https://www.rossmanchance.com/applets/index2021.html
Simulation-Based Inference blog: https://www.causeweb.org/sbi/
Ask Good Questions blog: https://askgoodquestions.blog
Statistics TLC (Teaching and Learning Corner) blog: https://stattlc.com/
Statistical Thinking in Undergraduate Biology: www.causeweb .org/stub/
Desmos: www.desmos.com
CODAP: https://codap.concord.org/
The Islands*: https://islands.smp.uq.edu.au/register/
Gapminder: https://www.gapminder.org/
CensusAtSchool: https://ww2.amstat.org/censusatschool/