This learning progression will be taught to a class that consists of juniors and seni
ors in high school who are currently taking a college course that is taught at their high school, Math 102: Mathematical Decision Making. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) that will be addressed come from one domain, High School: Statistics and Probability. The CCSS clusters that will be addressed are “Make inferences and justify conclusion from sample surveys, experiments, and observational studies” and “Use probability to evaluate outcomes of decisions.” Students will also meet Mathematical Practices 3, 5, and 7.
The central focus of this learning progression is on an introduction to statistical reasoning and the aspects of a study that may produce biased results. The progression begins with an overview of what statistical studies are and the process that someone must go through to create one. These foundational concepts will give the background knowledge that they will need to use throughout the remainder of the learning progression. The students will then learn about some different types of studies and how to avoid bias while creating a study. In the third task of this progression, the students will use all of these ideas to find their own methods of testing the validity of a study’s results. At the end of the progression, the students will be asked to design their own study and will work on conducting this study as a project that will be added on to over time. After completing this learning progression the students will learn how to analyze data and how to represent it graphically to be able to use the results of a study to make decisions with. The beginning steps of this project will be the students’ assessment.