STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT LEARNING : Jeremi London, PhD Integrating Project-based Learning in Engineering Statistics to Reveal its Relevance Engineering Programs The Polytechnic School Keywords: engineering statistics, project-based learning, emphasizing relevance, personalized learning

WHY? WHAT PROBLEM ARE YOU SOLVING? WHAT ARE YOUR EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES? Many complete engineering statistics courses not knowing how statistics is relevant to their engineering majors and/or anticipated career. Students ? “By the end of this undergraduate Engineering Statistics course, students should be able to articulate and defend the role of statistics in their engineering discipline and intended career.” are less motivated to learn concepts when relevance is not evident; rarely make connections between topics and its utility without scaffolding; may struggle to recall and use concepts appropriately in the future if connections are not made while learning

WHEN? WHAT IS THE DEVELOPMENTAL HISTORY OF YOUR INNOVATION? 2016 1 Re-write your admission essay answering the questions: “Why Me? Why Here? Why Now?” Spring Semester In teams for 2-3, create a YouTube Video that expresses the Role of Statistics in your engineering discipline and /or anticipated career; Link to the NAE Grand Challenges 4 2 Mini Projects 200 -level 3 Design an experiment (around a paper airplane, catapult, or chewing gum) to evaluate the influence of varying factors on the final metric of interest statistics engineering course 4 Creatively convey “A World Without Statistics” at the End-of-Semester Innovation Showcase Project-based learning was integrated in the Spring 2016 course & will be added to the course in Spring 2017 as well.

WHERE? HAVE YOU TRIED THIS IN OTHER INSTITUTIONS? Q HAVE YOU TRIED THIS IN OTHER INSTITUTIONS? WAS THIS DEVELOPED FOR A SINGLE CLASS, FULL COURSE, OR CURRICULUM? ONLY Course details 2016 TRIED AT Spring A ASU The four mini projects were integrated into one 200-level engineering statistics course. 54 students Manufacturing Automotive systems Humanitarian Robotics Electrical systems Mechanical engineering systems 6 engineering disciplines

WHAT? WHAT LEARNING ACTIVITIES AND MATERIALS HAVE YOU DEVELOPED? “An Amalgamated Model of Motivation” (Svinicki, 2004) WHAT LEARNING ACTIVITIES AND MATERIALS HAVE YOU DEVELOPED? Motivation toward a goal is influenced by the learners’ goal orientation Project descriptions and corresponding rubrics for 4 mini projects The value of the goal, which is affected by: The learner’s expectation that the goal can be achieved, which is affected by: WHAT IS YOUR THEORY OF CHANGE? “An Amalgamated Model of Motivation” (Svinicki, 2004, p.146) Difficulty of goal Perceived needs Prior experience with the goal WHAT HAS WORKED REALLY WELL? Intrinsic qualities of goal Match with learner skills Integrating Project-based learning into a statistics course works. By the end, students: Demonstrated understanding of statistics concepts; Effectively communicated the role of statistics their engineering discipline, anticipated careers, and the world in multiple ways; Most (72%) earned a final grade of A or B in the course (as opposed to the 30% D/F rate of the past for this course). Encouragement/example of others Utility of goal Self-efficacy with respect to this goal Control and choice Attributions about success and failure Influence of others Beliefs/attitudes about learning Svinicki, M. (2004). Learning and Motivation in the Postsecondary Classroom. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

PROGNOSIS Q A * * * HOW ARE YOU DOCUMENTING IMPACT? WHAT CHALLENGES ARE YOU CURRENTLY FACING? Pre-post survey responses Please provide at least three examples of how statistics is relevant to your engineering discipline, your anticipated career, and/or engineers, in general. Most students struggled to provide 2 examples in their pre-survey response to this question; more than half offered 3 examples in their post-survey response. Q It is difficult to train teaching assistants (TAs) on how to apply the rubrics designed to assess the students’ submissions. A WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU LIKE FROM OTHERS AT FOEE? * How do you train TAs to effectively apply rubrics for open-ended projects that require tacit expertise? What are other ways to emphasize relevance, to personalized the learning experience, and/or integrate projects in an engineering statistics course? Are you interested in collaborating with me to replicate this idea in your statistics course and studying the effects? HOW DO YOU PLAN TO SCALE-UP? * Submitting a collaborative NSF proposal to study the effects in multiple contexts. Partnering with other who teach engineering statistics or other math-intensive courses. *