Chapter 11: Observational Studies and Experiments (Days 89-90)

This is a Stats blog, so the focus of this blog will be on the only Stats classes I now teach -- Ethnostats. In Ethnostats today I start Chapter 11 of the text, which is on observational studies and experiments. The lesson officially takes us through the first nine pages of the chapter and a "Just Checking" problem. Some topics covered in this chapter are factors and treatments of an experiment, and statistical significance.

But this semester I plan on incorporating more of the ethnic component into the class. Today -- and perhaps often on Fridays moving forward -- I will link to an article. This time, I choose "Culture as Disability," authored by Ray McDermott. I was able to find this article on JSTOR, but fortunately, one of my predecessors included the article in a shared Google drive that I was sent.

Originally, my plan was to have the students read the article after I taught the main lesson and answer questions about it in their Stats scrapbooks. But after the second period kids and I saw the 25-page length of the article, I realized that it makes much more sense to make the article the homework and do the question from the text as classwork in the interactive notebooks. I also had a Semester 1 Grade Reflection (also inspired by a predecessor Ethnostats teacher) as a Warm-Up.

Traditionalists, of course, would disagree here. To them, someone who fails a test of knowledge is simply unknowing, not differently-knowing. Then again, there's a lot for traditionalists to disagree with in this Ethnostats class. (I kept giving warnings during the rereading of Eugenia Cheng's book, but why bother -- traditionalists will object to almost anything in Ethnostats, so traditionalists might as well quit this blog.)

In my other classes yesterday, Calculus did Section 4.1, on related rates. I gave two assignments -- one from the text, the other from AP Classroom. And Trig began Section 1.2 on the rectangular (that is, the Cartesian) coordinate system. I ended up doing that Desmos "One Word" challenge with this class only.

Meanwhile, the problems with minimum days continue. There is an upcoming meeting coming up (not this Monday since it's MLK Day, but after that), presumably about the future of our school. But instead of having a minimum day, the meeting lasts until 4:30. Some teachers are upset, and there was some talk of a union grievance. If there is no minimum day, then Calculus and Ethnostats might have no quiz next week.

Today is the first day of the week on the Eleven Calendar. (In my New Year's post, I wrote that I often call the first day of the Eleven Calendar week "Friday" so that Muslims can have a Sabbath. Thus today is Friday on both the Eleven and Gregorian Calendars.)

Resolution #1: We take pride in our own work and cite our sources.

I definitely discuss citing our source in Ethnostats class. In particular, the first question I ask the students on the assignment is to give a full citation of the McDermott article.

Monday is MLK Day, and Tuesday is an odd period day (no Ethnostats), so my next post is Wednesday.

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