EDC Center for Children and Technology
(TR18) Exploring the Sampling Laboratory

Recognizing the growing importance of statistical reasoning, many educators have added statistics to the mathematics curriculum. One of the key difficulties students have in learning statistical concepts is conceptualizing a problem as a question of confidence in a method rather than identifying the appropriate formula for calculation. This requires students to revise their mental models of mathematics in basic ways. This report describes a program, Sampling Laboratory, which helps students with concepts of sampling by allowing them to manipulate the processes of sampling and making inferences from samples. It also describes a curriculum built around the Sampling Laboratory, a field test of its use in high school classrooms, and studies of the learning of statistical reasoning related to sampling.