Community Service Statistics Projects Author(s): Jon E. Anderson and Engin A. Sungur Reviewed work(s): Source: The American Statistician, Vol. 53, No. 2 (May, 1999), pp. 132-136 Published by: American Statistical Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2685732 . Accessed: 25/06/2012 11:27 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
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CommunityService StatisticsProjects JonE. ANDERSON and EnginA. SUNGUR
Statisticsinstructors knowthatinteresting, real-worldproblems are crucialto motivatestudentlearning.As an extensionof ourefforts to buildstudentinterestand ownershipin servicelearninginto applications,we recentlyincorporated our statisticscourses.Service learningprovidesan activelearningexperienceassociated with a communityservice application.In thisarticlewe describeourexperiencesusing servicelearningin our statisticscourses.We give examples of projectsused at the Universityof Minnesota-Morris, a public,liberalartscollege. KEY WORDS: Activelearning;Service learning;Statistical education.
1. INTRODUCTION In recentyearsmanyof us have incorporated more"active learning"experiencesand contentinto our statistics courses.Servicelearningmightinitiallybe thoughtof as tutoringotherstudents,or providingservicesfortheelderly, butit is also a valuable,active-learning approachforstatisIn we define servicelearningas ticaleducation. thiscontext servicethatrelatesto studentinvolvement and community appreciationwithina given course. That is, studentsare involvedin statisticalanalysesthatwill benefitthecommunity.Service learningis especiallywell suitedto statistics courses because almost everytype of group or organizationhas data thatneeds summarization and analysis.In this articlewe presentsome motivationforservicelearningas an educationalapproach,and give some examplesof how we have used servicelearningin bothintroductory and advancedcourses.We concludeby providingsome comments and advice forthose consideringservicelearningin their courses. 2. MOTIVATION FOR SERVICE LEARNING Using servicelearningin our courses evolved as a natural extensionof the active-learning philosophydescribed by Cobb (1992) and Garfield(1995), and subsequentlydeveloped into books by Schaeffer,Gnanadesikan,Watkins, and Witmer(1996) and Rossman(1996). We were looking forlongertermactivelearningapplications.Service learninghas successfullyprovidedthisdimensionto ourcourses. In this sectionwe brieflydescribethe benefitsof this apJonE. Andersonis Associate Professor,and Engin A. Sunguris Associate Professor,Division of Science and Math,Universityof MinnesotaMorris,Morris,MN 56267 (Email:
[email protected]).
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proachforthethreemostimportant groupsin thisprocess: students,facultymembers,and community organizations. The primarybenefitof service learningfor studentsis thattheyare analyzingreal data in a local context.Because the projectcomes froma local source,studentinterestand ownershipof theprojectis strong.This approachalso provides consultingand statisticalcommunication opportunities. Because studentsare motivatedwith an application, we believe theyare more receptiveto the methodological contentof thecourse. Many facultymembershave threejob components:research,teaching,and service(outreach).However,thereis an increasingtendencyforfacultymembersto be facedwith higherexpectationsin all of thesecomponents.We believe thatservicelearningprovidesa way to become more efficient and effectiveby combiningeffortson these components.The efforton a service-learning projectobviously contributesto our outreachcomponentand, as we have mentioned,we believeit greatlybenefitsteaching.In addition,a servicelearningprojectmay also provideresearch, forfaculty. consulting,and grantopportunities The community organizationbenefitsfromservicelearnthatwould othing by obtaininganswersand information erwise not be available due to financialor expertisedifficulties.The organizationcan also benefitin thefuturefrom theestablishment of thiscontact. The websitefortheNationalSocietyforExperientialEducation (www.nsee.org)is a helpfulsource of furtherinformationabout servicelearning.We also recommendthe periodicalsNSEE Quarterlyand The MichiganJournalof ServiceLearning. Community 3. IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES The process began in 1995 withthe preparationof the 10-yearComprehensivePlan for the City of Morris. As partof thisplan, the cityinvitedcitizensto participatein focus groups on specificareas of town planningthatinterestedthem.These focus groupsproduceda reportthat reflectedthe desires and needs of the city.However,the City of Morrisdid not have the resourcesto obtainanalysis of most of the issues importantto citizens,such as thelocal economy,land use, housing,transdemographics, portationsystems,and manyothers.We decided thatwe could address some of the ComprehensivePlan issues in our courses. Our experiencewith the City of Morris led us to considerothercommunity agenciesthatmightbenefit fromour services.In subsequentcourseswe havebeen able to implementprojectsfortheMorrisWetlandManagement District,the MorrisSoil and WaterConservationDistrict, and theUniversityof Minnesota,Morris. Our firstattemptsat incorporating servicelearningwere supportedby a grantfromMinnesotaCampus Compact. This grantwas crucial to the early developmentof these
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