How many words do you know? An integrated assessment task for introductory statistics students

David I. Warton The University of New South Wales, Australia
Journal of Statistics Education Volume 15, Number 3 (2007)

Abstract
A novel assignment exercise is described, in which students use a dictionary to estimate the size of their vocabulary. This task was developed for an introductory statistics service course, although it can be modified for use in survey sampling courses. The exercise can be used to simultaneously assess a range of core statistics skills: sample size estimation, obtaining a simple random sample, estimating a sample proportion, measuring the sample error of this proportion, and similarly for a scalar multiple of a proportion. The outcome of this exercise involves the student discovering something about themself, which serves as a natural motivator and a tool for generating interest in the discipline of statistics.

Key Words: active learning, dictionary, higher education, lexical richness, service courses, vocabulary size

For detail, download here (right click)