Administering the Statistics Challenge ====================================== **This activity is designed for students who have had one or two statistics courses.** Before class: ------------- - Divide the class into teams of 2-5 students, each with an assigned correspondent - Set aside 2-3 hours of class time for the activity - Ask students to bring their computers, with the appropriate statistical package installed - Send the students the rules of the game and the help file (in the student resources folder) During Class: ------------- The challenge is made up of five cascading problem scenarios (rounds), with the possibility of a sixth for more advanced students. At the start of each round teams are given the pertinent information, problem, and dataset. This is done by emailing the appropriate documents to the team correspondent, who in turn sends the information to his/her team members. These documents are are located in the data sets folder. Teams then work together to solve the problem. They are allowed to use any resource except people outside their group, or any resource that has the answers. Notable resources that are allowed are the Internet and the help file provided on this site. Since the range of information available to the students is so wide, students are expected to find it as a team or as individuals, and should not rely solely upon the instructor for guidance. In fact, help from the instructor should normally be limited to responses to student submissions. This being said, the instructor should feel free to take any meaningful teaching opportunity. When a team feels they have the correct answer, **each team member** should send their answer, a brief explanation of their work, and some graphic to express their findings (except round 2 which requires no graph or chart) to the team correspondent. The team correspondent should then forward all team members' work (in one email) to the instructor. A team has completed a round when all members have satisfactorily solved the problem and submitted the required materials. The instructor does not need to advance a team until he/she is certain that all team members have understood the content within the round. Once a team has completed a round they are sent the necessary information to begin the next round. They do not need to wait for other teams to catch up before beginning. They are also awarded points for completing each round. Points may be awarded as follows: - 1st place receives 15 points - 2nd place receives 12 points - 3rd place receives 10 points - 4th place receives 9 points - 5th place receives 8 points and so on as your needs require. The instructor may send an email to the students including the data and a message with the following format: Congratulations! You completed part x in y place and were awarded z points. Overall your team is in w place with v points. The winning team is the team with the highest points at the end of the final round.