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Climate Change Module (Project EDDIE) for Introductory Statistics

Author(s): Jessie Oehrlein

Fitchburg State University

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Summary:
Students practice and deepen their understanding of bivariate numerical data analysis (correlation, linear regression, etc.) through working with data related to climate change. Adapted from a module produced by Project EDDIE.

Licensed under CC Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International according to these terms

Version 1.0 - published on 20 May 2022 doi:10.25334/KKGD-AP27 - cite this

Adapted from: Climate Change Module (Project EDDIE) v 1.0

Description

In this module, students will explore how climate is changing from the recent record, using and interpreting correlation and linear regression to study relationships among temperature, carbon dioxide concentration, and time.

This is a modification of the Project EDDIE Climate Change module, based on the original A and B portions, but with an emphasis on quantitative reasoning and statistics as opposed to the climate content. Supporting materials teach concepts about linear equations, correlation, and linear regression. The modified EDDIE module was taught in an introductory, algebra-based statistics course over two class sessions, one 75 minutes and one 50 minutes. The other materials were used in a prior 50-minute session, a prior 75-minute session, between class periods, and as assessment afterwards. The course was hyflex (simultaneously in-person and synchronous remote) to two sections of 25 students.

Project EDDIE Environmental Data-Driven Inquiry & Exploration) is a community effort aimed at developing teaching resources and instructors that address quantitative reasoning and scientific concepts using open inquiry of publicly available data. Project EDDIE modules are designed with an A-B-C structure to make them flexible and adaptable to a range of student levels and course structures.

Notes

  • Updated dataset to continue to 2021 instead of 2014 and provided data to students
  • Removed section C and modified sections A and B to three sections
  • Adapted from Excel to a mix of Google Sheets and Stapplet
  • Included both R and R2, asked about explanatory vs. response variables, and other adjustments to activity to focus on statistics and interpretation (over climate change content)
  • Augmented with review materials on linear equations, inquiry-based introduction to correlation and regression, slides for discussion of those topics, and student reflection, homework, quiz questions, and project on correlation/regression

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