Stats vocabulary

last week at #statschat we discussed the HUGE amount of vocabulary we throw at Stats students as they begin the class.  In my book's first 2 chapters alone there are 75+ words my students are supposed to understand before we even really start discussing Statistics.  We all agreed that this was a problem

Being my first time teaching Stats, I looked through the assessment materials I was required asked to use to assess students in the class.  I had little difficulty with many of the questions, except for those specifically related to levels of measurement.  (I did ok on them, just wasn't sure of my choices).

This I decided was due to the vocabulary related to these questions.

So I brainstormed and came up with 2 foldables and an activity to use with them.

The first foldable is Qualitative vs Quantitative

It is the smaller one on the left.  the top two flaps open and the bottom is an envelope.  It holds the other foldable and is useful in the sort.

The second foldable, also visible in the picture above compares Nominal/Ordinal/Interval and Ratio levels of measurement. Inside students are to define each of the levels of measurement and give an example.

I also had the students do a sort of different kinds of data.  They first had to sort them by qualitative and quantitative.  Next they had to try and identify what level of measurement each was.  Students completed this part with a partner and then we shared out as a class.