CEdO540 - Session Two

Arggggg... I think I have the z score table figured out and then it escapes me. So I really had no troubles with the first three study guides but the 4th is my challenge right now. I have answers to all of the questions - sometimes two - and therein lies the problem. I'll be emailing Jim or asking tons of questions later tonight!
On to brighter topics. The research and background information on surveys and their creation always leads me to consider ways to incorporate these into my classroom. I currently use Infinite Campus when I want to survey my students on a topic as it automatically posts the next time they log in and keeps appearing until they've completed the survey. I usually survey students at the beginning of the year (looking at why they chose the course, what they expect to learn etc.) and then at the end to evaluation both their and my semester together. Occasionally, when I write new curriculum units, labs, or lessons I'll also post a short survey to gather feedback on how it went from the student perspective.

CEdO540 - Session One

This week was a statistical review and preparation for more data analysis. I really enjoyed looking at the WINSS data through the Wisconsin Department of Instruction web site. I found the site extremely easy to navigate and it was really easy to manipulate the variables to look at many different aspects of education. The site is enhanced with the ability to simply look at general state trends or to focus on specifics. I choose to see if the ACT scores on the science portion showed any gender differences. Many sources cite females lagging behind their male counterparts in science and I wanted to see what the data for my school would bear out. (Results can be found here.)

I have to admit that when thinking about the assignments I kept putting them off due to what I perceived would be tedious, like I remember my last statistics course. What I had forgotten was that I really like mathematical analysis and working with data - so when I finally sat down to start these assignments and guided practice I found myself enjoying playing around in Google Spreadsheet to create a chart (which I had never done before). The YouTube video "What is Statistics" was a bit outdated but the material was still applicable. Simply working through the video identifying problems, describing data collections and conclusions felt very comfortable as I teach science so I felt very much in my element. I may even "steal" the assignment to use with my students when I discuss types of data collections and the scientific method in general as students sometimes have a hard time grasping the real-world relevancy of the textbook presentation.