We present a programmatic approach to incorporating ethics into an undergraduate major in statistical and data sciences. We discuss departmental-level initiatives designed to meet the National Academy of Sciences recommendation for integrating ethics into the curriculum from top-to-bottom as our majors progress from our introductory courses to our…

This chapter describes a small-scale pilot study in which participants in the experimental group learned how to write Japanese kanji characters within an immersive Virtual Reality (VR) graffiti simulator (the Kingspray Graffiti Simulator on the Oculus Rift VR system). In comparing the experimental group to the non-VR control group in the context…

The POGIL-PCL project implements the principles of process-oriented, guided-inquiry learning (POGIL) in order to improve student learning in the physical chemistry laboratory (PCL) course. The inquiry-based physical chemistry experiments being developed emphasize modeling of chemical phenomena. In each experiment, students work through at least…

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) released proposed Science and Technology/Engineering standards in 2013 outlining the concepts that should be taught at each grade level. Previously, standards were in grade spans and each district determined the method of implementation. There are two different methods used…

This brief provides an overview of the Instructional Improvement System (IIS) models for State education agencies in Hawaii, Kentucky, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Ohio and Rhode Island, along IIS goals in the following areas: (1) Standards and Curriculum; (2) Instructional Practices; (3) Assessment and Growth; (4) Learner Profiles; (5) Data…

"If someone were traveling to our area for the first time during this time of year, what would you tell them to bring to wear? Why?" This question was used to engage students in a guided-inquiry unit about how climate differs from weather. In this lesson, students explored local and national data sets to give "travelers" advice…

The Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education presents a longitudinal analysis of how students change on a number of scales that purport to measure many of the outcomes of liberal learning over the span of a college education. The Wabash Study is designed to collect information longitudinally from students at the beginning and end of their…

A basic question of instructional interventions is how effective it is in promoting student learning. This paper presents a study to determine the relative efficacy of different instructional strategies by applying an educational data mining technique, learning decomposition. We use logistic regression to determine how much learning is caused by…

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 requires states to ensure that all students make adequate yearly progress in achieving proficiency in English language arts and math. This study examines how six diverse schools have responded to the challenge of educating their students in math, particularly students with disabilities and other…

New software tools for data analysis provide rich opportunities for representing and understanding data. However, little research has been done on how learners use these tools to think about data, nor how that affects teaching. This paper describes several ways that learners use new software tools to deal with variability in analyzing data,…