Integrating Introductory Statistics and Sociology Courses Through Group Projects in a Health Sciences Program

• Activity Number: 85
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Sunday, July 31, 2011 : 4:00 PM to 5:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Teaching of Statistics in the Health Sciences
• Author(s): Aminul Huq*+ and Molly J. Dingel and Jared Bartels
• Companies: University of Minnesota at Rochester and University of Minnesota at Rochester and University of Minnesota at Rochester
• Keywords: Health Sciences ; Sociology ; group projects ; Statistics ; Integrated projects

Abstract

The University of Minnesota Rochester has an unique interdisciplinary undergraduate curriculum in the health sciences, where most students enroll in the same set of classes. Because of this cohort model, and because statistics is required for all students in the first semester, it is possible to integrate statistics into a diverse set of courses, including sociology, philosophy, and chemistry. Statistics and sociology were integrated by requiring groups of students to write a series of four papers utilizing data from the General Social Survey. In this set of papers, students chose and described two variables of interest, developed a hypothesis about the relationship between their variables, utilized descriptive statistics to explore the relationship between their variables, and contextualized their findings using material from their sociology course. This set of papers allowed the instructors to illustrate the broad applicability of both sociological and statistical concepts, as well as allowing instructors to assess the skills and theories the students learned in both courses. Faculty and student experiences will be discussed, with suggestion for future modifications.