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 The YouTube video "What is Statistics" was a bit outdated but the material was still applicable.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.