DEVELOPMENT OF A PROJECT-BASED STATISTICS COURSE FOR APPLIED BIOSTATISTICS USING STATA Frank Snyder, PhD, MPH Assistant Professor of Public Health Department of Health and Kinesiology College of Health and Human Sciences 7/31/15 1

OUTLINE Project-based statistics Course content Course description Textbooks Online resources for students Course format and philosophy Assignments, final project, portfolio Conclusions 2

PROJECT-BASED STATISTICS 3 Workshop of Project-Based Statistics; Wesleyan University, 2012 Project-based learning is an instructional approach that is designed to build students skills and offer real-world activities (Dierker et al., 2012). Structured, yet board to encourage critical thinking

COURSE DESCRIPTION 4 Goals: Basic concepts and methods of statistics as used in public health Application Interpretation Basic terminology How to conduct analyses Quantify health relationships Compute and interpret inferential statistical techniques Use Stata to facilitate the storing, management, displaying, analysis, and interpretation of health research-related data

5 Heather M. Bush. (2012). Biostatistics: An Applied Introduction for the Public Health Practitioner (1 st Edition). Delmar, Cengage Learning Required textbook:

PUBLIC HEALTH APPLICATION A study is conducted to better understand childhood obesity. Children between the ages of 6 and 10 who attend public schools are given questionnaires and clinical exams. Questionnaire: Participation in school lunch programs, activity level, the amount of television watched, and video games played. Clinical exam: Height, weight, and body mass index (BMI). A total of 610 children participate in the study. 6

REQUIRED 7

SUGGESTED 8

ONLINE RESOURCES 9 UCLA Institute for Digital Research and Education: Carolina Population Center: atatutorial Stata YouTube channel:

COURSE FORMAT/STRUCTURE 10 Lecture Introduce and cover course topics Computer Lab Apply topics covered in lecture and course materials.

COURSE PHILOSOPHY AND PARTICIPATION 11 Success depends upon understanding statistical concepts and using Stata. Focus on gaining skills Listen, share insights, ask questions, and participate in discussion Work in groups to discuss issues Brainstorming and thoughtful interaction

COURSE CONTENT AND GRADES 12

LAB ASSIGNMENTS 13 Nearly each week Typed lab assignments due at the beginning of the next lab Important part of course; feedback Written in a professional style Interpretations of statistical and substantive significance are expected

FINAL PROJECT/ORAL PRESENTATION 14 Presentation during the final week of class Can be an organized poster session Students complete related lab assignments Includes a research plan: Literature review on chosen research topic Evaluation of the importance of the research question Description of the study methods (i.e., study design, sampling procedures, and measures/variables). At time of oral presentation student provides the instructor with: Hard copy of slides Hard copy of Stata log file

FINAL PROJECT/PRESENTATION 15 Provide a publically available dataset (e.g., Health Behavior in School-aged Children) Approximately 10-minute presentation Presentation PowerPoint template provided (Power Point or poster) Includes: Title Introduction Research question or questions Methods Results (including at least one graph) Discussion

PORTFOLIO 16 Intention Hardcopy/three-ring binder Digital format Submitted near the end of the course At a minimum, includes: Class notes Lecture slides Notes student records while reading the text Practice problems Assignments with Stata Do-files. Organized

DETAILED COURSE SCHEDULE 17

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Dr. Lisa Dierker, Wesleyan University, Qualitative Analysis Center Dr. Alan Acock, Oregon State University 18

CONTACT INFORMATION Frank J. Snyder, Ph.D., M.P.H. Assistant Professor Department of Health and Kinesiology College of Health and Human Sciences Purdue University 800 West Stadium Ave. West Lafayette, IN Ph: (765) Fax: (765) Syllabus Lab activities State do-files Research project description Final presentation template 19