[R] OT: DOE - experiments for teaching

[Bob Wheeler]

Since ECHIP no longer exists, I guess it is OK to reveal some of the 
stuff we did. We taught a course to engineers for more than 20 years and 
our statistics indicated that 9 out of every 10 attendees ran at least 
one experiment after the course.

One of the things that was done was intended to break the mind set of 
the students, and we did this by posing a problem for them to solve 
before we attempted to teach them anything. We usually used the funnel, 
although in the early days it was a computer simulation. Many students 
had some idea of design to begin with, and tried to put what they knew 
to work with mixed success, while others rolled their own. Teams were 
used, and someone from each team reported the results. Criticism was 
always constructive. We followed this up by solving the problem using a 
design, and we explained the methodology as we went along with all 
students collecting and analyzing the data on their own computers.

Almost all students (even those reluctantly required to attend by 
management) bought into the problem; becoming so interested, that we 
often had to chase them from the classroom at the end of the day.



Berton Gunter wrote:
> I've had fun and luck with the apparatus described in my little paper:
> 
> THROUGH A FUNNEL SLOWLY WITH BALL BEARING AND INSIGHT TO TEACH EXPERIMENTAL
> DESIGN 
> The American Statistician, 47, 4 p. 265-269 (1993)
> 
> We continue to use this in our industrial training.
> 
> I also would strongly second Spencer's remarks re the difficulty of helping
> students see the big picture. For some reason, viewing experimentation as
> part of an overall learning process/strategy does not seem to be part of
> most scientist's or engineer's formal education. I suppose if you look at
> typical science or engineering labs where the goal is to come to a
> predetermined conclusion, it's not hard to see why. But we don't need to get
> into that imbroglio here.
> 
> -- Bert Gunter
> Genentech Non-Clinical Statistics
> South San Francisco, CA
>  
> "The business of the statistician is to catalyze the scientific learning
> process."  - George E. P. Box
>  
>  
> 
> 
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch 
>>[mailto:r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch] On Behalf Of Spencer Graves
>>Sent: Friday, May 05, 2006 3:59 PM
>>To: Thomas Kaliwe
>>Cc: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
>>Subject: Re: [R] OT: DOE - experiments for teaching
>>
>>	  I fully endorse Richard Heiberger's recommendation of 
>>the Bill Hunter 
>>articles on teaching experimental design.  For a 
>>college-level semester 
>>D0E class, I had students do experiments in groups.  I found 
>>it wise to 
>>have them do a preliminary presentation with a discussion of the 
>>experimental design plus their protocol for managing all the 
>>details of 
>>test materials, data collection, etc., then a final report with the 
>>results.  Many students did fine, but some were clearly 
>>clueless about 
>>the whole process, which indicated a need for some adjustment 
>>in what I 
>>taught or in some individual assistance.
>>
>>	  If this is just a few hours or a 1-day thing, you 
>>might consider 
>>"http://www.prodsyse.com/exped2b.pdf".
>>
>>	  hope this helps.
>>	  Spencer Graves
>>
>>Thomas Kaliwe wrote:
>>
>>>Hi,
>>> 
>>>I'm sorry for this not being related to R but I think this is a good
>>>place to ask. I'm looking for DOE examples(experiments) 
>>
>>that can be done
>>
>>>at home or in class, such as Paper  Helicopter, Paper Towel 
>>
>>etc.. I'm
>>
>>>thankful for any comment.
>>> 
>>>Thomas
>>>
>>>	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>>>
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> 
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-- 
Bob Wheeler --- http://www.bobwheeler.com/
    ECHIP, Inc. --- Randomness comes in bunches.