Posts

7.1 7.2 2026.3 normal curve introduction with dice groups

Image
This builds off of the concept piloted spring 2026 which used students rolling a single die to generate data columns each of which is a uniform distribution and then the sum is a normal distribution. The result was statistically illustrative but opaque to the students. The whole business of summing arbitrary columns didn't make intuitive sense for a student with no background in probability. Better to have students rolling one die, two dice, three dice, and so forth, entering the sums into columns on the spreadsheet. Then do histograms of these columns. The complication is that those rolling five dice will be vastly slower than those rolling one die. Teams of two are needed. Six groups could be formed. Whether there should be a six die group or a second group of five is yet to be determined. Six dice have 279,936 outcomes and a sum of 36. The students were all added to a Google Sheets spreadsheet as editors. Maireen arrived early and was given five dice. Est...
Post a Comment
Read more

When the automatic habit of turning to AI backfires

Image
Students now turn to AI for answers as a matter of habit and routine. Without thought. In an ethnobotany class the students have been quizzed in the field as to the local names of local plants. The class has a focus on first languages and indigenous uses. The above plant is known in Pohnpeian as kidienmall or, alternatively, kidim en mall.  When asked on an online test in the learning management system, "What is the name of this plant in your first language?" a Pohnpeian speaker entered the answer: Palhinhaea cernua — club moss (if the quiz expects the local/common name, this may be running clubmoss). The class has not focused on scientific names and in the field the instructor is using local language names for the plants. That the student knew the scientific name is already improbable. The next character is one that is now infamous in terms of AI: the m-dash. An m-dash is not available via a single keystroke on a keyboard. Nor do the students know the distinction between a h...
Post a Comment
Read more

Cooling curve

Image
Water was preloaded into the kettle the day before. The hot plate was put into the cabinet after the temperature demonstration. The coffee pot was also preloaded. In the morning, the water was off, preloading paid off. The beakers are 100 ml, not 50 ml. The thermometers are not in this image.  Iryann reads the thermometer and Youlanie records data Franchesca records data, Jaymar reads the thermometer Haily and Marikai Moki reocord data while Kayla reads the thermometer Maileen records data, Rachel handled thermometer readings Trevor recording readings made by Travis Rachel entering data in Desmos
Post a Comment
Read more

Temperature

Image
This term the lecture was organized around a presentation . This helped organize the lecture. Ice water, boiling water. Putting the coconut oil in a bath of 100°C water accelerated melting to real time. Then placing the coconut oil in the ice water beaker re-solidified the oil. This provided a more vivid demonstration of the melting and solidifying temperature for coconut oil. Pouring boiling water into the 300 ml bath for the coconut oil could benefit from having gloves.  Coconut oil in the ice bath  Board notes including temperatures and heat transfer diagram. The temperature material took until 12:30, thirty minutes. This left twenty minutes for how heat is transferred and a quick once over the three laws of thermodynamics. Hot coffee was added to the list on Thursday. The following were added on Friday. Despite wet ground from rain and overcast skies, the temperatures still played out as expected. Humans 30 31 32 33 Steel cover 33 Gr...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hydroponic and raised bed garden

Image
The ethnobotany class that can verge on being a friendly mob visited the Entrepreneurship center's hydroponic facility and raised bed gardens. A Nutrient Film Technique system is the oldest system in the hydroponic facility. Produce is sold every Wednesday. A bucket system was added after the NFT system for fruiting vegetables such as green bell pepper. An aeroponic tower system was added just this year. Far more compact and space efficient than an NFt system.  Marco signs the guest register, Merryoleen strikes a pose. Merryoleen was the first to arrive. According to Welbert she arrived in the morning.  Marco and Merryoleen get ready to moisten rockwool under Welbert's supervision. Keesha, in the background,  is ever aware of the presence of cameras.  Kelarimalyanne puts on gloves to handle the rockwool. Kelarimalyanne and Lisarita moisten the rockwool in a bucket. Delaura...
Post a Comment
Read more

5.3 50 orange 35 blue 15 white marbles

Image
One hundred marbles. Students blind draw a single marble. Population probability is known. Tally the sample to obtain relative frequency.  Last spring the recommendation was to move to ratio level data . Upon further thought, the ratio level data would not demonstrate the linkage between mathematically determined probabilities and statistically inferred probabilities. Ratio level data wouldn't have obvious population values.  One could use the mass of the marbles to predict a known population mean, but that is a conceptually harder system in which to explain what the probability of individual mass classes ought to be. Those weight class probabilities would be driven by an underlying normal distribution. Students would not comprehend why the predicted probability for the class bounded by the mean minus a standard deviation and the mean has a predicted probability of 34% Fifty orange marbles, thirty-five blue marbles, and fifteen white marbles sets up an easier to se...
Post a Comment
Read more