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Active Learning in Intro Statistics Classroom: Sampling Variability (308525)

Keywords: statistics education, active learning

As statistics educators, we constantly search for engaging activities that aid students in grasping the material. This poster focuses on such a hands-on activity for sampling variability in an introductory statistics classroom.

With the objective of “visualizing” that sample mean is a variable, each student is given a bag of multi colored candy and asked to count the number of a specific color in the bag. Then, they are formed into groups of 2, 4, 8, and 16 and asked to calculate the sample averages. Goal here is to investigate how sample average varies, and how its variance decreases as sample size increases. The poster summarizes this activity, explains its pedagogical strategies, and how to use this activity and its data for later topics throughout the semester.