Project-Based Learning for Introductory Statistics Courses Using Data From the American River

Most of the projects were assigned in Stat 50 class which is a calculus-based introductory probability and statistics course. Students are primarily from the Computer Science and Statistics/Mathematics majors. a version of the project was also implemented two sections of Stat 1 (an introductory non-STEM statistics course at Sacramento State). The first project or the first part of a typical project is focused on descriptive statistics and visualizations using technology (e.g. Excel, R, Matlab or an online applet). These include real data from the American River and other water sources as well as some synthetic data simulated by a computer program. Measurements include pH, oxygen saturation, temperature, pressure and total suspended solids. Students analyzed separate data sets as well as checked any potential association between bivariate sample data (e.g. oxygen saturation versus temperature). The second part (or project) is mainly on inferential statistics and interpretation of results using real data, again using technology and critical thinking.