Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Statistics in Action: Explore a Successful
Service-Learning Project
Presented by Mary DeHart, Ed.D
Professor of MathematicsSussex County Community College
34th Annual AMATYC Conference
November 20, 2008
What is a service-learning project?
A service-learning project is one in which students provide a service to their community while utilizing skills and knowledge that are relevant to their college courses.
This presentation will include:
A brief description of how the Pulse of Sussex County Service Learning Project began, and of the initial structure of the project
Examples of published surveys
Step-by-step details of how the current project is conducted
A discussion of how the project helps students to learn and understand Statistics
The Pulse of Sussex CountyService Learning Project
Began in 2003
Involves the cooperation of SCCC students, faculty, administration, and the New Jersey Herald Newspaper
Sussex County, NJ: Population 153,384Sussex County Community College
Enrollment: 3,732
The Pulse of Sussex County Project
Initial Goals
Give a voice to county residents
Build stronger ties between the college and the community
Provide Statistics students with the opportunity to see statistics in action.
The Project Begins
Meeting with The NJ Herald
Forming the Pulse of Sussex County Committee
Planning Survey Design
Deciding on the level of student involvement
Role of Statistics Professor
Recruit and train students
Supervise collection of survey topics and questions
Distribute topics and questions to committee members
Help to supervise survey process
Role of Students
Brainstorm survey topics
Formulate unbiased questions
Conduct surveys
Role of Pulse of Sussex County Committee
Review topics suggested by students
Select topics for surveys
Review and fine-tune unbiased questions
Role of SCCC Department of Institutional Research
Prepare survey forms
Help to monitor survey process
Record and analyze data
Present report to the New Jersey Herald
Challenges
Obtaining a random sample of Sussex County residents
Finding phones for students to use
Analyzing data in a timely fashion
October 2003The First Two Surveys
TopicsThe NJ Bear Hunt
The War in Iraq
41 Students Participated
370 Surveys Completed
The New Jersey Bear HuntPublished November 30, 2003
Questions
Have you ever seen a bear in
Sussex County?
Yes 91%
No 9%
The New Jersey Bear HuntPublished November 30, 2003
Have you ever seen a
destructive act by a bear?
Yes 30.7%
No 69%
The New Jersey Bear HuntPublished November 30, 2003
Questions
Has the presence of bears in the
county changed your behavior?
Yes 37.4%
No 61.2%
The New Jersey Bear HuntPublished November 30, 2003
Do you believe that there are
too many bears in Sussex County?
Yes 48.6%
No 42.4%
The New Jersey Bear HuntPublished November 30, 2003
Should there be a bear hunt
in New Jersey?
Yes 43.6%
No 44.4%
First Iraq War Survey Published: 12/15/03Sadam Hussein Captured: 12/13/03
OverdevelopmentPublished February 15, 2004
Immigration Published August 8, 2004
Upcoming Presidential Election Published August 29, 2004
Improvements
25 new phone lines installed, 25 phones purchased so that calls can be made from one location
List of randomly generated residential phone numbers purchased
Sports Published October 3, 2004
Sports Survey: Graphs and Results of
Follow-Up Interviews
VacationsPublished November 21, 2004
2004 Presidential ElectionPublished November 14, 2004
Bear Hunt Follow-UpPublished December 22, 2004
Iraq War Follow-UpPublished December 22, 2004
DietingPublished January 5, 2005
Social Security Published May 15, 2005
Cigarette SmokingPublished July 3, 2005
Third Anniversary of the Start of the Iraq WarPublished March 19, 2006
TattoosPublished April 27, 2007
Do You Have Any Tattoos?
Students Community
Yes29.0%
No71.0%
Yes14.5%
No85.8%
Do you have any tattoos?
Students n = 183
Communityn = 379
16.1%
40.6%
0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
20.0%
25.0%
30.0%
35.0%
40.0%
45.0%
Male Female
Yes
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
35.00%
40.00%
45.00%
Males Females
Series1
Quality of Life SurveyPublished January 29, 2006
Cell Phone UsagePublished February 27, 2007
New Jersey State Budget Crisis
Published June 1, 2008
Quality of Life in Sussex CountyPublished March 16, 2008
2008 Presidential ElectionPublished October 26, 2008
Pulse of Sussex County ProjectionsCompared to
Actual Election Results
Election Results in Sussex CountyJohn McCain 59.5%
Barack Obama 39.0%
Current Project: Trend Data from the Quality of Life SurveyExample: Would you say that, compared to one year ago, the overall economy in the Sussex County region today is better, about the same, or worse?
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
2005 2006 2007 2008
Better
About the Same
Worse
Current Structure of Project
Typically 75-100 Statistics students work on the project each semester.
Students are awarded 100 points of credit for the project: 20 points for generating topics and formulating questions, and 80 points for making phone calls.
A Step-by-Step Look at the Survey Process
Statistics students brainstorm topics.
Professor submits list of topics to the NJ Herald and the SCCC Department of
Institutional Research
NJ Herald Editor, Institutional Researcher, and Professor discuss and select 2 topics per survey session.
Students formulate 5 or 6 unbiased questions per survey topic.
Editor, Institutional Researcher, and Professor review questions and edit if necessary.
Survey forms are prepared by the Department of Institutional Research
Professor or Institutional Researcher present the survey to the students and provide a short training session.
Surveys are conducted on three consecutive evenings from 6:30 – 8:45 PM.
The Professor and the Institutional Researcher supervise the students. Each student is required to work one evening.
Department of Institutional Research scans form and compiles a report to send to the Professor and the NJ Herald.
NJ Herald publishes articles.
The report and the articles are discussed with the students.
The Pulse of Sussex CountyChanges and Challenges
No more committee
Scanning software facilitates data entry
SCCC Journalism students helped with the reporting on the 2008 Presidential survey
Honors Statistics students will begin to help with the analysis of data during the spring 2009 semester
Benefits of the Project for Teaching and Learning
Students learn the challenges of collecting sample data
They have an experiential context in which to place statistical concepts such as sampling techniques design of surveys formulation of unbiased questions sample size confidence intervals margin of error etc.
The 39 surveys that have been completed for the Pulse of Sussex County Project would not have been possible without the help of more than 600 SCCC Statistics students and the following people:
Dr. Bradley Gottfried, former SCCC President
Bruce Tomlinson, General Manager, New Jersey Herald
Chris Frear, Editor, New Jersey Herald
Rob Schmicker, former SCCC Institutional Researcher
Matthew Miller, SCCC Associate Director of Institutional Research
Jo-Ann Harby, SCCC Department of Institutional Research
All Pulse of Sussex County Reports submitted to the New Jersey Herald were produced by the SCCC Department of Institutional Research.
