[R] introducing R to high school students

[Richard M. Heiberger]

Christopher,

I suggest that you look at R through Excel.  This is a Springer book that
Erich Neuwirth and I wrote.  It is designed as a computational supplement to any
introductory Statistics book.  It uses Erich's RExcel to give either
menu access to R
from Excel (using Rcmdr embedded into the Excel menu system), or by placing any
R function inside the Excel automatic recalculation model.

RExcel is available either in the RExcelInstaller package from CRAN,
or fully integrated into
a complete R system from rcom.univie.ac.at.  Go to the Downloads page
and download
the current RAndFriends installer.

We have discussions on using RExcel in the classroom in the Literature
and presentations
section on the Wiki page at the rcom site.
Several of the links are to papers at the UseR! conferences.  This one
specifically addresses
teaching:
http://www.r-project.org/useR-2006/Slides/BaierEtAl.pdf
Baier, T., Heiberger, R., Neuwirth, E., Schinagl, K., Grossmann, W.
(2007). Using R for teaching statistics to nonmajors: Comparing
experiences of two different approaches. Paper presented at the UseR
2006, Vienna.

Rich


On Apr 17, 2012, at 22:46, Christopher W Ryan <cryan at binghamton.edu> wrote:

> I participate peripherally on a listserve for middle- and high-school
> science teachers. Sometimes questions about graphing or data analysis
> come up. I never miss an opportunity to advocate for R. However, the
> teachers are often skeptical that their students would be able to
> issue commands or write a little code; they think it would be too
> difficult. Perhaps this stems from the Microsoft- and
> spreadsheet-centered, pointy-clicky culture prevalent in most US
> public schools. Then again, I have little experience teaching this age
> group, besides my own kids and my Science Olympiad team, so I respect
> their concerns and expertise.
>
> I don't know yet what software they generally use, but I suspect MS
> Excel and SPSS.
>
> Now I have to put my money where my mouth is. I've offered to visit a
> high school and introduce R to some fairly advanced students
> participating in a longitudinal 3-year science research class.
>
> I anticipate keeping things very simple:
> --objects and the fact that there is stuff inside them. str(), head(), tail()
> --how to get data into R
> --dataframes, as I imagine they will mostly be using single,
> "rectangular" datasets
> --a lot of graphics (I can't imagine that  plot(force, acceleration)
> is beyond a high-schooler's capability.)
> --simple descriptive statistics
> --maybe t-tests, chi-square tests, and simple linear regression.
>
> Alas, probably more than we would have time to cover.
>
> Has anyone done anything with R in high schools?
>
> Thanks.
>
> --Chris Ryan
> SUNY Upstate Medical University
> Binghamton Clinical Campus
>
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