Rocks: A Concrete Activity That Introduces Normal Distribution, Sampling Error, Central Limit Theorem and True Score Theory

This report introduces a short, hands-on activity that addresses a key challenge in teaching quantitative methods to students who lack confidence or experience with statistical analysis. Used near the beginning of the course, this activity helps students develop an intuitive insight regarding a number of abstract concepts which are key to mastering introductory statistics. Students are introduced to true score theory, Poisson distribution, central limit theorem and directly observe the effects of sampling error. Throughout the course concepts can be related back to this experience and made less abstract and more concrete meeting the needs of a broader range of learners. (Contains 2 diagrams.)