JSM Preliminary Online Program
This is the preliminary program for the 2009 Joint Statistical Meetings in Washington, DC.

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Activity Number: 563
Type: Contributed
Date/Time: Thursday, August 6, 2009 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
Sponsor: Section on Statistical Education
Abstract - #303280
Title: Searching Our Collective Consciousness: A Google Trends Activity for Introductory Statistics
Author(s): Eric Nordmoe*+
Companies: Kalamazoo College
Address: 1200 Academy St, Kalamazoo, MI, 49006,
Keywords: Teaching statistics ; active learning ; introductory course ; internet
Abstract:

In fall 2008, the news media reported that Google Flu Trends could be used to effectively predict flu outbreaks two weeks before they were identified through traditional channels. Through the product Google Trends, Google has made available massive amounts of data regarding search terms and their frequencies. This information is easily accessible to students since it may be readily downloaded and accessed using any popular spreadsheet or statistical package. In this talk, I introduce and describe the Google Trends product and provide examples of the kinds of statistical questions it can be used to address. Finally, I present a classroom activity that requires students to generate hypotheses, collect data using Google Trends, and carry out exploratory data analysis to assess the extent to which the Trends data supports or refutes their hypotheses.

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