Statistics in Action: The Evolution of a Service-Learning Project37th Annual AMATYC ConferenceNovember 10, 2011Presented by Mary DeHartJim Ham

What is a service-learning project?A service-learning project is one in which students provide a service to their community while utilizing skills and knowledge that are relevant to their college courses.

Our presentation will include:A brief description of how the Pulse of Sussex County and Pulse of Midland County Service Learning Projects began, initial and current structure of the projects

Examples of published surveys

Step-by-step details of how the projects are conducted

A discussion of how the projects help students to learn and understand Statistics

The Pulse of Sussex CountyService Learning Project

Began in 2003

Involves the cooperation of SCCC students, faculty, administration, and the New Jersey Herald Newspaper

Sussex County, NJ: Population 149,265Sussex County Community College Enrollment: 3,698

The Pulse of Sussex County ProjectProject Goals

Give a voice to county residents

Build stronger ties between the college and the community

Provide students with the opportunity to see statistics in action.

The Project BeginsMeeting with The NJ Herald

Forming the Pulse of Sussex County Committee

Planning Survey Design

Deciding on the level of student involvement

Role of Statistics ProfessorRecruit and train students

Supervise collection of survey topics and questions

Distribute topics and questions to committee members

Help to supervise survey process

Role of Students

Brainstorm survey topics

Formulate unbiased questions

Conduct surveys

Review the Pulse of Sussex County articles, reflect on the survey experience, offer suggestions for improvement

Role of Pulse of Sussex County Committee

Review topics suggested by students

Select topics for surveys

Review and fine-tune unbiased questions

Role of SCCC Department of Institutional Research

Prepare survey forms

Help to monitor survey process

Record and analyze data

Present report to the New Jersey Herald

Challenges

Obtaining a random sample of Sussex County residents

Finding phones for students to use

Analyzing data in a timely fashion

October 2003The First Two SurveysTopicsThe NJ Bear Hunt

The War in Iraq

41 Students Participated

370 Surveys Completed

The New Jersey Bear HuntPublished November 30, 2003Questions

Have you ever seen a bear in Sussex County?

Yes 91.0%

No 9.0%

The New Jersey Bear HuntPublished November 30, 2003

Have you ever seen a destructive act by a bear?

Yes 30.7%

No 69.0%

The New Jersey Bear HuntPublished November 30, 2003Questions

Has the presence of bears in the county changed your behavior?

Yes 37.4%

No 61.2%

The New Jersey Bear HuntPublished November 30, 2003

Do you believe that there are too many bears in Sussex County?

Yes 48.6%

No 42.4%

The New Jersey Bear HuntPublished November 30, 2003

Should there be a bear hunt in New Jersey?

Yes 43.6%

No 44.4%

First Iraq War Survey Published: 12/15/03Sadam Hussein Captured: 12/13/03

OverdevelopmentPublished February 15, 2004

Immigration Published August 8, 2004

Upcoming Presidential Election Published August 29, 2004

Improvements

25 new phone lines installed, 25 phones purchased so that calls can be made from one location

Phone number list purchased

Sports Published October 3, 2004

Sports Survey: Graphs and Results of Follow-Up Interviews

2004 Presidential ElectionPublished November 14, 2004

Cigarette SmokingPublished July 3, 2005

Third Anniversary of the Start of the Iraq WarPublished March 19, 2006

Tattoos Published April 27, 2007

Quality of Life in Sussex CountyPublished March 16, 2008

More Improvements

25 additional phones purchased

Student Center Dining Room equipped with phone lines.

2008 Presidential ElectionPublished October 26, 2008

Pulse of Sussex County ProjectionsCompared to Actual Election Results

Election Results in Sussex CountyJohn McCain 59.5%Barack Obama 39.0%

Trend Data from the Quality of Life Survey

NJ Governor Chris Christie:Published December 13, 2010

At what age should a child be allowed his/her first cell phone?

Chart1

0.046

0.141

0.525

0.262

0.026

Series 1

Sheet1

Series 1Series 2Series 3

8 years old and under4.6%2.42

9-11 years old14.1%4.42

12-14 years old52.5%1.83

15-17 years old26.2%2.85

18 years old and older2.6%

To resize chart data range, drag lower right corner of range.

Which of the following social networking accounts do you have? a.) Facebook

Responses by Age

Chart1

0.875

0.871

0.921

0.766

0.561

0.556

0.5

0.265

0.261

0

Yes

Sheet1

YesSeries 2Series 3

18-1987.5%2.42

20-2487.1%4.42

25-3492.1%1.83

35-4476.6%2.85

45-5456.1%

55-5955.6%

60-6450.0%

65-7426.5%

75-8426.1%

85+0.0%

Which of the following social networking accounts do you have? b.) Twitter

Chart1

0.75

0.276

0.244

0.221

0.116

0.114

0.16

0.029

0.045

0

Yes

Sheet1

YesSeries 2Series 3

18-1975.0%2.42

20-2427.6%4.42

25-3424.4%1.83

35-4422.1%2.85

45-5411.6%

55-5911.4%

60-6416.0%

65-742.9%

75-844.5%

85+0.0%

Responses by Sex: Twitter Account

Chart1

0.231

0.136

Yes

Sheet1

YesSeries 2Series 3

Male23.1%2.42

Female13.6%4.42

Category 33.51.83

Category 44.52.85

To resize chart data range, drag lower right corner of range.

To date:.

More than 1000 SCCC students have participated in the project

51 surveys completed

=7.9 surveys per student

Largest sample size: 690 surveys

Current Structure of Project

Typically 75-100 Statistics students work on the project each semester.

Students are awarded 100 points of credit for the project: 10 points for generating topics and formulating questions, 80 points for making phone calls, and 10 points for evaluating demographic perspectives on survey data.

A Step-by-Step Look at the Survey Process

Statistics students brainstorm topics.

Professor submits list of topics to the NJ Herald and the SCCC Department of Institutional Research

NJ Herald Editor, Institutional Researcher, and Professor discuss and select 2 topics per survey session.

Students formulate 5 or 6 unbiased questions per survey topic.

Editor, Institutional Researcher, and Professor review questions and edit if necessary.

Survey forms are prepared by the Department of Institutional Research

Professor or Institutional Researcher present the survey to the students and provide a short training session.

Surveys are conducted on two consecutive evenings from 6:308:45 PM.

The Professor and the Institutional Researcher supervise the students. Each student is required to work one evening.

Department of Institutional Research scans forms and compiles a report to send to the Professor and the NJ Herald.

NJ Herald publishes articles.

Working in groups, students offer their perspectives on the demographic analysis and provide suggestions for improvement.

Benefits of the Project for Teaching and LearningStudents learn the challenges of collecting sample data

They have an experiential context in which to place statistical concepts such as sampling techniques design of surveysformulation of unbiased questions sample sizeconfidence intervalsmargin of errorcorrelation and regressionetc.

The 51 surveys that have been completed for the Pulse of Sussex County Project would not have been possible without the help of the following people:Dr. Bradley Gottfried, former SCCC President

Bruce Tomlinson, Editor, New Jersey Herald

Rob Schmicker, former SCCC Institutional Researcher

Matthew Miller, SCCC Associate Director of Institutional Research

Brittany Kovach, SCCC Department of Institutional Research

Jo-Ann Harby, SCCC Department of Institutional Research

All Pulse of Sussex County Reports submitted to the New Jersey Herald were produced by the SCCC Department of Institutional Research.

and now

The Pulse of Midland County

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