ABSTRACT

To incorporate active learning and cooperative teamwork in statistics classroom, this article introduces a creative three-dimensional educational tool and an in-class activity designed for introducing the topic of agglomerative hierarchical clustering. The educational tool consists of a simple bulletin board and color pushpins (it can also be realized with a less expensive alternative) based on which students work collaboratively in small groups of 3–5 to complete the task of agglomerative hierarchical clustering: they start with n singleton clusters, each corresponding to a pushpin of a unique color on the board, and work step by step to merge all pushpins into one single cluster using the single linkage, complete linkage, or group average linkage criteria. We present a detailed lesson plan that accompanies the designed activity and also provide a real data example in the supplementary materials. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.

摘要

为了在统计课堂中融入主动学习和合作团队精神，本文介绍了一种创新的三维教育工具和一项课堂活动，旨在介绍聚集层次聚类的主题。该教育工具由一个简单的公告板和彩色图钉组成（也可以使用更便宜的替代品来实现），在此基础上，学生们以3至5人的小组合作完成聚集式层次聚类的任务：他们从n开始单例集群，每个集群对应于板上唯一颜色的图钉，并逐步工作以使用单个链接，完全链接或组平均链接标准将所有图钉合并到一个单独的群集中。我们将提供一份详细的课程计划，以配合设计的活动，并在补充材料中提供真实的数据示例。可在线获得本文的补充材料。