Savannah-Badoo: A Web-Based Course 

Integrating Statistics and other Disciplines

 

A web-page introduces this scenario to an audience of graduate students from a variety of disciplines. The selected context integrates political science, sociology, education, and bussiness concepts with the concepts and methods taught in an introductory statistics course. The goal is to facilitate a meaningful understanding of statistical concepts and skills, and use them as a problem solving tools, in a scenario familiar to adults of voting age.

 

The scenario can be implemented at other levels of difficulty by scafolding the content and technology employed, and simplifying the statistical analysis. Students can make use of scientific or graphing calculators, spreadsheets or statistical software. The version contained on this page makes use of Excel.

 

The exploratory nature of this approach facilitates students' recognition of the need for new mathematics in order to solve the problems possed by the research questions considered. The social nature of the investigation conducted for the country of Savannah-Badoo helps students develop community awareness and expand their critical thinking ability.

 

Keywords: statistics, experimental design, technology, social science, bussiness applications, applied mathematics