Course: Statistics for Social Justice

Tyler George

Cornell College

Academic Setting: Cornell College

Liberal arts college of 1150 students
One-course-at-a-time block schedule
All sophomores take a second-year course with a focus on civic engagement with no pre-requisites

Academic Setting: The Students

Sophomores
14 students
Mix of undeclared majors
About half of the students happen to have taken a previous statistics course

Community Partners

Waypoint Services
Iowa Legal Aid

Brief Learning Objectives

Historical and ongoing inequities in housing
Learn and apply descriptive introductory statistics

Pedagogy (1 of 2)

Engage -> Individual reflection -> Class discussion and reflection
Varied content mediums including podcast’s, videos, readings, seminars, and a board game
Individual reflections graded with a uniform rubric
Class discussion graded by participation

Pedagogy (2 of 2)

Interactive lecture and problem sets
Group project
Three groups, size 4-5 students each
Data “collecting”
Short paper (graded with rubric)
Info-graphics
Final presentation to Waypoint and community

Positive Outcomes

Reflections showed tremendous amounts of personal growth
Students who reported not enjoying the course topic reported they still saw the value of the work and statistics generally
Students were extremely motivated by the potential value of their work for the community
Authentic understanding of the complexities of data and potential impacts

Negative Outcomes

Minimal learned formal statistics
The students taking the work seriously struggled to trust other students
Difficult to grade individual students

Example Student Work

https://stats-tgeorge.quarto.pub/sta-200-stats4sj/

Thank you

Materials: