This project focuses on the development of a new assessment instrument, applicable to multiple undergraduate engineering programs, to measure students' understanding of statistics and its applications. The statistical understanding measure developed under this research, called the Statistical Concepts Inventory (SCI), provides score profiles that specifically describe students' abilities to design and conduct experiments as well as to analyze and interpret data. This project is timely because an increasing number of post-secondary engineering programs are endorsing "outcome requirements" that depend on statistical thinking and problem-solving skills. Within engineering, these requirements are precipitating major changes in engineering education in general and engineering statistics education specifically. Engineering curricular objectives in many respects are being driven by the ABET EC 2000 criteria. Of special relevance to the proposed project are: - Criterion 3, Programs Outcomes and Assessment, which states that "Engineering programs must demonstrate that their graduates have: (a) an ability to apply knowledge of mathematics, science, and engineering, and (b) an ability to design and conduct experiments, as well as to analyze and interpret data." and - Criterion 8, Program Criteria, in which 16 of the 24 listed programs directly indicate the need to demonstrate that students have acquired facility with statistics. Industrial Engineering has historically taught statistics as a service course to other engineering programs and continues to use statistics as a foundation for much of its own curriculum. Recently approved are the Criteria for Accrediting Computing Programs (Computing Accreditation Commission, December 30, 2000), which covers Computer Science programs and states in its curriculum standards that "Course work in mathematics must include probability and statistics." This project is also exploring the links between cognitive and attitudinal aspects of introductory statistics courses. In its second phase, this project is gathering SCI profile scores from students in combination with an existing affective instrument, the Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics (SATS).
