Bombs, Babies and Ball Games: Fostering Intellectual Curiosity in Basic Statistics

Abstract

'Fostering intellectual curiosity' is an important educational goal at most colleges and universities and has been highlighted as a key educational outcome at the United States Air Force Academy. In this study, we analyze the effect of choice of projects on the intellectual curiosity of Air Force Academy cadets enrolled in a basic statistics course. Cadets chose from three alternative projects which applied the same probability and statistical concepts, but set these concepts in different topical contexts. Our results indicate that when students were given a choice of project, they both enjoyed the project more and were more interested in the topic of the project, but this enjoyment did not translate into improved scores.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1997
Accession Number
ADA338479

Entities

People

  • Bradley A. Warner
  • Marie A. Revak

Organizations

  • United States Air Force Academy

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter IED
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Air Force
  • Computer Science
  • Data Science
  • Information Science
  • Instructors
  • Mathematics
  • Political Science
  • Probability
  • Social Sciences
  • Statistics
  • Students
  • Surveys
  • United States
  • United States Air Force Academy
  • Universities

Readers

  • Educational Psychology
  • STEM Education