Teaching Simulation-Based Inference

Speaker: Kari Lock Morgan, Assistant Professor of Statistics, Penn State University
Chair: Paul Buckley, Gonzaga College High School
Sponsors: WSS Statistics Education Committee and Gonzaga College High School
Date and Time: Friday, April 1, 2016, 4:00–5:30 p.m. Informal reception to follow at approximately 5:45 p.m. at East Street Cafe on the mezzanine level of Union Station.
Location: Gonzaga College High School - 19 I Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 - Ruesch Hall, Room 307. Please call (202) 336-7100 if you have trouble finding the building.

By Metro: Take the Red Line to Union Station. From Union Station, walk north along North Capitol Street for about 4-5 blocks until you reach St Aloysius Church (just after the football field). Go through the pedestrian entrance of the gate to the right of the church. To your right are the two academic buildings, Ruesch and Cantwell Halls. Enter through the center entrance of those buildings and proceed up the stairs to Room 307.

By Car: Free parking is available in the school parking garage, which is accessible after 3 p.m. Information about the parking garage can be found at http://www.gonzaga.org/parking. Coming out of the garage, the building in front of you is Dooley Hall. To the right of Dooley Hall is a pass-through to the other part of the campus. Go down those stairs, through the pass-through and then up the stairs after that. As you come up the stairs you will see the two main academic buildings, Ruesch and Cantwell Halls. Enter through the center entrance of those buildings and proceed up the stairs to Room 307.

RSVP: To be placed on the seminar attendance list, please email Carol Joyce Blumberg at cblumberg@gmail.com by March 29, 2016.

Abstract: Teaching inference via simulation methods such as bootstrap confidence intervals and randomization tests is becoming more common, in part because they are intrinsically connected to the underlying concepts, more intuitive, require less background knowledge, and are more generalizable than the traditional approach of formulae and theoretical distributions. In addition to their use in college introductory statistics classes, the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics for high school recommend teaching statistical inference via simulation, stating that students should be able to "develop a margin of error through the use of simulation models for random sampling" and "use simulations to decide if differences between parameters are significant". This talk will focus on the teaching of these two concepts, and will also demonstrate free online tools (www.lock5stat.com/statkey) designed for teaching these simulation methods, although the methods covered in this talk can also be implemented using many other software packages.

POC email: Carol Joyce Blumberg, cblumberg@gmail.com

Remote Access: If you want to attend the seminar remotely, using video and/or audio, contact cblumberg@gmail.com by March 29, 2016. Instructions will be provided to you around March 29.