611 – Using Data Sets, Technology, and Activities to Teach Statistics
Case Study: Bringing Data to Life Into an Introductory Statistics Course with Gapminder
Sponsor: Section on Statistical Education
Keywords: Visualizing Data, Gapminder, Teaching Statistics, interactive, education, mixed methods
Dai-trang Le
Iowa State University
We present findings from our study on using the animation and interactive software, Gapminder, to "Bring Data to Life into an Introductory Statistics Course". Utilizing mixed methods case study, we investigated the benefits of using Gapminder to enhance student learning experience in statistics. Results indicate that Gapminder helps stimulate students' interest and improve their engagement in learning statistics. Moreover, Gapminder arouses students' natural curiosity about the world development, raises awareness of data, and promotes the use of statistics to understand the world.
