StudyOfFun.html

WELCOME to the webpage for the CAUSEmos Study of FUN cluster!

CURRENT ROSTER

Person (& “homepage”)	Institution	Email	Time zone	Active since
Jim Albert	Bowling Green State U. ; OH	Albert at bsu.edu	Eastern	2011
Robert Carver	Stonehill College; MA	rcarver at stonehill.edu	Eastern	2009
Patricia Erickson	Taylor U.; IN	pterickson at tayloru.edu	Eastern	2009
Ellen Gundlach	Purdue University	Gundlach at purdue.edu	Eastern	2013
Shonda Kuiper	Grinnell College; IA	kuipers at grinnell.edu	Central	2009
Larry Lesser	The University of Texas at El Paso; TX	Lesser at utep.edu	Mountain	2007
Shu-Min Liao	Amhert College; MA	sliao at Amherst.edu	Eastern	2011
Nadia Martin	University of Waterloo; Ontario, Canada	Nadia_Martin@yahoo.com	Eastern	2011
Dennis Pearl	The Ohio State University; OH	dkp at stat.osu.edu	Eastern	2007
Michael Posner	Villanova University; PA	michael.posner at villanova.edu	Eastern	2009
Amitra Wall	Buffalo State College; NY	hodgeaa at buffalostate.edu	Eastern	2009
John J. Weber	Georgia Perimeter College (Clarkston); GA	John.Weber at gpc.edu	Eastern	2011

Our 2009-2011 WIKI page

for more info, contact Jean Scott (614-688-5913; jscott@stat.osu.edu); scheduling may involve http://www.meetingwizard.com or http://www.doodle.com

TIMELINE:

2003: CAUSE formed

2004: in August, CAUSE launches website that includes some fun items

2006: Lesser gives a CAUSE webinar (the 4th in its series) on using fun items, archived at: http://www.causeweb.org/webinar/teaching/2006-04/

2007: bi-annual A-mu-sing contest http://www.causeweb.org/a-mu-sing/ launched; Lesser & Pearl give invited breakout session on fun at USCOTS

2008: Lesser & Pearl review paper on fun appears in JSE: http://www.amstat.org/publications/jse/v16n3/lesser.html

2009: spring call for applicants for the Study of Fun cluster launched at USCOTS 2009: “Larry Lesser and Dennis Pearl invite self-nominations to join us in a special cluster devoted to the study of fun. There is a great need for more systematic and sustained investigation into what role various types of fun can or should play in increasing student motivation, understanding, and retention in statistics courses. This cluster will organize through conference calls prior to USCOTS, meet on Thursday afternoon June 25th prior to USCOTS, and have two meals together at USCOTS. Continuing after the conference through monthly conference calls and other communication, the cluster will examine previous research in the use of fun items in teaching statistics, work through possible methods of making fun materials more effective, and will collaborate in research to assess the classroom effectiveness of using fun. For an introduction to this topic see http://www.amstat.org/publications/jse/v16n3/lesser.html. To apply for this cluster please select the "Teaching with Fun" category under on-going interest groups when you register for USCOTS. Applications received by May 1, 2009 will receive full consideration in the selection of participants.”

conference call 12-1 on 6/17/09 (read paper and browse collection beforehand);

at USCOTS 2009, the group (Audbjorg Bjornsdottir, Andrea Boito, Rob Carver, Patricia Erickson, Alexis Grosofky, Katherine Holversen, Shonda Kuiper, Larry Lesser, Andre Lubecke, Jackie Miller, Dennis Pearl, Michael Posner, and Amitra Wall) has three in-person meetings; the conference also featured the Kuiper/Lesser/Pearl/Posner invited (poster and) “beyond” session on fun: “Letting Go of the Idea that Stats Class Can’t be fun and FUNctional!” or Amitra Wall’s poster); after USCOTS, the group launched a WIKI page; during monthly conference calls (July 10, Aug. 13, Sept. 25, Oct. 28, Dec. 7), the group continued review of literature, considered issues of classification and identification of attributes of fun, reflected upon how the CAUSEweb collection can be improved (in terms of items, searchability, pedagogical notes, etc.); Lesser and Glickman publish paper on magic: http://iospress.metapress.com/content/j730w4777h667125/

2010: monthly conference calls resumed (May 14) with smaller group (Carver, Erickson, Kuiper, Lesser, Pearl, Posner, Wall) with greater focus on research; planning for USCOTS resulted in launching a DropBox folder for the group

2011: spring call for applicants to join (beginning at USCOTS 2011) the ongoing Study of Fun cluster (http://www.causeweb.org/uscots/cluster/): “Larry Lesser and Dennis Pearl invite self-nominations to join our ongoing cluster devoted to the study of fun. There is a great need for more systematic and sustained investigation into what role various types of fun can or should play in increasing student motivation, understanding, and retention in statistics courses. This cluster will conduct conference calls prior to USCOTS, meet at USCOTS, and continue after the conference through monthly conference calls and other communication. The cluster will examine previous research in the use of fun items in teaching statistics, work through possible methods of making fun materials more effective, and will collaborate in research to assess the classroom effectiveness of using fun. While the topic is 'fun', the group is serious in committing to timely and regular communications, participation in monthly conference calls, and working towards grants and/or publishable papers on the nature or effectiveness of various modalities and implementations of fun. To apply for this cluster please select the "Study of Fun" category under on-going interest groups when you register for USCOTS. Also, please read the Nov. 2008 JSE overview paper and then complete and return this survey and send it by e-mail to Lesser (at) utep.edu. Selection of participants will be competitive and applications received by April 10, 2011 will receive full consideration.”

This resulted in adding four new members (Albert, Liao, Martin, Weber) to the group, which met multiple times during USCOTS 2011 and presented a peer-reviewed “posters and beyond” session called “A Little Fun Makes a BIG Difference!” (Carver/Erickson/Kuiper/Lesser/Pearl/Posner/Wall) which spotlighted the same 5 modalities from 2009 USCOTS (games, music, magic, cartoons, strange news) and also reported the results of an anonymous survey conducted the previous day of USCOTS participants (64% response rate), who received a customized notepad for participation and an option to enter a drawing (at the USCOTS banquet) for a Nook. The group continued semi-monthly conference calls, held a research retreat in Chicago October 28-29, 2011.

2012: Submitted on 10/2/12 a lengthy paper on the survey. (Quant analysis subgroup was Albert, Carver, Kuiper, Liao, Posner; qual analysis subgroup was Erickson, Martin, Wall, Weber; overall coordination: Lesser and Pearl); on 12/13/12, the paper is conditionally accepted

2013: on 1/22/13 we submit our revised paper and (with minor further edits) it is published on 3/28/13 in the March 2013 issue: Lesser, L.M.; Wall, A.; Carver, R.; Pearl, D.K.; Martin, N.; Kuiper, S.; Posner, M. A.; Erickson, P.; Liao, S.-M.; Albert, J.; Weber, J.J. (2013). Using fun in the statistics classroom: An exploratory study of college instructors’ hesitations and motivations. Journal of Statistics Education, 21(1), http://www.amstat.org/publications/jse/v21n1/lesser.pdf; in-person meeting at Friday lunch (May 17) of USCOTS 2013 and Saturday breakfast; also, a peer-reviewed (80% acceptance rate) contributed poster (presented by Posner/Erickson/Carver/Kiao/Martin) is accepted(on 4/14/13) for USCOTS 2013 and its abstract appears in the conference proceedings at #35 in https://www.causeweb.org/uscots/uscots13/posters/) ; Related to the above paper is an archived invited national webinar presented (by Lesser/Carver/Erickson) on Aug. 20, 2013, https://www.causeweb.org/webinar/jse/2013-08/ ; Posner and Lesser did fun-related presentations at USCOTS 2013 banquet (5/17/13), with lyrics (and soon, video footage) posted at https://www.causeweb.org/uscots/uscots13/program/banquet_program.pdf and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGw6AtRWMA4 .

JSM 2013 roundtable "Exploring (and removing) hesitations to using (thoughtful) fun in statistics classes" on Monday, August 5, 2013 (Abstract #307703, Session #209218) ABSTRACT: Many instructors appreciate the value of making statistics courses (especially for non-majors) more engaging and fun to build classroom community, reduce student anxiety/disinterest, and increase motivation and memorability of content. Some instructors hesitate, believing they lack sufficient class time, skills/talent, or resources for readily finding and using quality examples. Other hesitations include the need to be perceived as sufficiently serious, or not being aware of any empirical evidence that this approach can help student learning. We will discuss these hesitations so we all leave with more understanding of how they can be addressed. My contributions will be informed by Project UPLIFT, "Universal Portability of Learning Increased by Fun Teaching" (the NSF TUES type 1 grant I have with Dennis Pearl, John Weber, and Rey Reyes, now entering its second year) as well as by work with my colleagues in the CAUSE "Study of Fun" Cluster that was published this past March in Journal of Statistics Education (L. M. Lesser, A. A. Wall, R. H. Carver, D. K. Pearl, N. Martin, S. Kuiper, M. A. Posner, P. Erickson, S.-M.Liao, J. Albert, J. J. Weber, 2013) and presented at USCOTS 2013.

Lesser, L. (2013). Exploring (and removing) hesitations to using (thoughtful) fun in statistics classes. Proceedings of the 2013 Joint Statistical Meetings, Section on Statistical Education (pp. 534-536). Alexandria, VA: American Statistical Association.

Robertson, W. & Lesser, L. (July 2013). Scientific skateboarding and mathematical music: Edutainment that actively engages middle school students. European Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 1(2), 60-68. http://www.scimath.net/articles/12/123.pdf

2014: POD research session, NCTM regional papers;

Lesser, L. (2014). Mathematical lyrics: Noteworthy endeavours in education. Journal of Mathematics and the Arts, 8(1-2), 46-53. DOI:10.1080/17513472.2014.950833

Lesser, L., Pearl, D., Reyes, R., Weber, J. (2014). “Preliminary Results of the Effects and Roles of Fun in Introductory Statistics Classes”, poster abstract. In K. Makar, B. de Sousa, & R. Gould (Eds.), Sustainability in statistics education. Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Teaching Statistics (ICOTS9, July, 2014), Flagstaff, Arizona, USA. Voorburg, The Netherlands: International Statistical Institute. http://icots.info/9/proceedings/pdfs/ICOTS9_P40_LesserPearlReyesWeber.pdf

Lesser, L., Pearl, D., Reyes, R., Weber, J. (2014). “Bridging the Disciplines with Fun: Resources and Research”, archived paper, 2^nd Electronic Conference on Teaching Statistics, https://www.causeweb.org/ecots/ecots14/32/. (followup panel discussion:https://www.causeweb.org/ecots/ecots14/51/

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2015: Joint Mathematics Meetings paper presented

USCOTS competitively selected breakout session (and one of 8 of 24 that were selected for a repeat session), which included John Landers drawing two cartoons in real time from London: Fun in statistics class: A vehicle for students to make connections
John Weber (Georgia Perimeter College), Dennis Pearl (Pennsylvania State University), Larry Lesser (University of Texas at El Paso)This session offers practical methods and experience on the active use of fun items (e.g., songs, jokes, cartoons) in teaching and learning statistics. We'll discuss instructors’ motivations and hesitations about using fun in the classroom, focusing on overcoming the barriers/hesitations while connecting fun to sound pedagogy. We'll discuss how using fun to connect students with each other as a classroom community and how fun can help students connect with the subject and specific content. Teams of participants will work (with special artistic consultants) to create or enhance specific fun items (e.g., arising from the A-mu-sing competition) suitable for achieving a specific pedagogical objective in teaching statistics. Participants will make connections to resource collections (CAUSEweb.org/resources/fun/) and learn to generate a mini-lesson with a fun item. Finally, participants will be connected to an interdisciplinary research base showing the value of fun in teaching and learning and how its effective use requires the planned active engagement of students. Participants will learn direct connections to tools and resources that break down these barriers and make using fun items in their teaching simple to implement.

Selected to host a “birds of a feather” session at USCOTS:

“Fun-feathered friends” interested in the use of fun (e.g., cartoons, songs, games, jokes, magic) in teaching statistics are invited to gather for Saturday lunch to discuss possible collaborative opportunities for collection enhancement (www.causeweb.org/resources/fun), professional development (e.g., a virtual conference), or research. There are ways to be involved on different fronts at different levels of commitment, and the next steps will be informed by the interests of who attends. If you’d like some background on this topic beforehand, see this 2013 paper by the CAUSE-supported Study of Fun Cluster: www.amstat.org/publications/jse/v21n1/lesser.pdf.

Lesser, L.M. & Reyes, R. (2015, June). Student Reactions to the Integration of Fun Material in a High-Anxiety Subject: A Case Study in the Teaching of College Introductory Statistics. Transformative Dialogues: Teaching and Learning Journal, 8(1), http://www.kpu.ca/td/past-issues/8-1