Stop and Smell the Roses: An Activity for Teaching the Central Limit Theorem

Abstract

Undergraduate psychology students in two statistics classes (N = 77) counted blooms on rose bushes on campus using sample sizes of either 30 or 60 bushes, and submitted sample means and standard deviations to an online database. Students used that database to graph sampling distributions and complete other homework problems. Students preferred the activity to lecture, found it helpful for understanding sampling distributions and a majority listed it as a favourite class activity (n = 48). A pretest and posttest evaluation of learning administered to one course section showed a statistically significant learning increase. This memorable, enjoyable and effective activity exposes students to practical research challenges and can be replicated using other dependent variables found in naturalistic environments.

References

Aberson

C. L.

Berger

D. E.

Healy

M. R.

Kyle

D. J.

, & Romero

V. L.

(2000). Evaluation of an interactive tutorial on teaching the central limit theorem. Teaching of Psychology, 27, 289–291.

Aron

, & Aron

E. N.

(2003). Statistics for psychology (3rd edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Benedict

J. O.

, & Anderton

J. B.

(2004). Applying justin-time teaching approaches to teaching of statistics. Teaching of Psychology, 31, 197–199.

Clements

A. D.

(1995). Experiential-learning activities in undergraduate developmental psychology. Teaching of Psychology, 22, 115–118.

Connor

J. M.

(2003). Making statistics come alive: Using space and students' bodies to illustrate statistical concepts. Teaching of Psychology, 30, 141–143.

Dolinsky

(2001). An active learning approach to teaching statistics. Teaching of Psychology, 28, 55–56.

Dyck

J. L.

, & Gee

N. R.

(1998). A sweet way to teach students about the sampling distribution of the mean. Teaching of Psychology, 25, 192–195.

Halonen

J. S.

Bosack

Clay

, & McCarthy

(2003). A rubric for learning, teaching, and assessing scientific inquiry in psychology. Teaching of Psychology, 30, 196–207.

Howell

D. C.

(2002). Statistical methods for psychology (5th edition). Pacific Grove, CA: Duxbury.

10.

Johnson

D. E.

(1986). Demonstrating the central limit theorem. Teaching of Psychology, 13, 155–156.

11.

King

B. M.

, & Minium

E. W.

(2003). Statistical, reasoning in psychology and education (4th edition). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.

12.

McCall

R. B.

(2001). Fundamental statistics for behavioral sciences (8th edition). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

13.

Urdan

T. J.

(2001). Statistics in plain English. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.