Abstract #301898

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JSM 2003 Abstract #301898
Activity Number: 301
Type: Contributed
Date/Time: Tuesday, August 5, 2003 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
Sponsor: Section on Statistical Education
Abstract - #301898
Title: Two Group Activities for Teaching Probability to Prospective Teachers
Author(s): Phyllis J. Curtiss*+ and John G. Gabrosek
Companies: Grand Valley State University and Grand Valley State University
Address: Mathematics & Statistics, Allendale, MI, 49401-9401,
Keywords: pre-service teachers ; probability ; group activities ; sample spaces ; expected value
Abstract:

The audience for the course in probability and statistics at Grand Valley State University (GVSU) includes mathematics and statistics majors. Many of the mathematics majors are pre-service K-12 teachers. The current syllabus includes sampling, graphical and numerical summaries of data, basic probability concepts including combinations and permutations, probability distributions of random variables, sampling distributions, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, and regression. The course emphasizes conceptual understanding. Educators at GVSU are involved in a project to connect concepts taught in college courses to materials encountered in the K-12 curriculum. The activities developed foster a deeper understanding of key concepts by requiring students to construct their own knowledge prior to formal lecturing. We describe how to incorporate two of the activities into the classroom. One of the activities involves sample spaces. This activity teaches students how to think about sample spaces before definitions and notation are developed. The second activity involves finding the expected value of a discrete random variable.

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