Research Methods Resources

Research Methods Resources

GenStat Discovery Edition

The origin of the statistical games

These games are simulation exercises of surveys and experiments, based on real life problems that have been adapted at the Statistical Services Centre of The University of Reading for educational purposes. They started life as index cards in envelopes and cardboard boxes, but we now have these electronic versions. They run under the Windows environment (Win 3.x/95/98 etc).

SSC would be grateful if you could let them know of any problems you have using them, and any comments you might have. Please direct these to Carlos Barahona (c.e.barahona*reading.ac.uk).

Source URL

The games and their documentation were copied with permission from the website of the Statistical Services Centre of the University of Reading. If you read this from a CD-ROM that is not very recent anymore, go to the SSC website to see if there is a new version available.

http://www.ssc.rdg.ac.uk/software/games/stat_games.html 

The guide "Learning statistics ... the fun way" (see below) was developed in collaboration between SSC and BUCS of The University of Nairobi.

Read more about BUCS (pdf 292Kb)

Possible roles for the statistical games

Generally, students fear or hate the subject statistics. Using these games in your teaching might overcome students' boredom and fear of statistics.

It will also allow you to focus more on the concepts underlying surveys and design of experiments and hopefully it will raise students' interest when you're teaching those topics. 

Installing the games: summary

To use the games you need to do the following:

• Download and install the run-time files.

• Download each game's compressed file on to your computer. Use a different folder for each game.

• Decompress (unzip) the file.

• Run the setup.exe file of each game.

Installing the games: details

If you don't have it yet, first install WinZip. 

winzip90.exe (2,366 Kb)

Alternatively, download WinZip from the WinZip website http://www.winzip.com 

Next, copy the zipped run-time files onto your computer hard disk (for instance in the temp directory), unzip them and run the setup.

r_time.zip (2,216 Kb)

Now, create one subfolder per game on your hard disk.

Next, copy the zipped files of each game into its folder, unzip them and run the setup of each game.

Samgame - a simple sampling exercise

In this game student is presented with an area to sample in order to establish a pattern hidden behind a grid. Trends, two strata, hot-spot, and random patterns are simulated. The challenge lies in finding out the pattern with using a relatively low number of samples. The game introduces the idea of random sampling and the difficulties encountered with low sampling intensities. At the end of each sampling expedition, the true pattern is revealed. You can find the password for revealing the codes in the file password.txt on the installation directory. (No cheating!)

samgame.zip (471 Kb)

Paddy - your chance to design a multi-stage survey

The aim of the survey is to estimate the mean yield per acre and the total production of a district where 160 farmers produce rice. The yield of the crop is affected by factors such as variety and fertiliser, for which information is to be collected during the survey. The district has 10 villages and each village different number of farmers that crop different areas. The maximum number of sampling units allowed is 30, and there are resources to visit up to a maximum of 5 villages. This conditions lead to the design of a multi-stage sampling scheme, and the discussion of issues such as self-weighting, and sample sizes at each stage.

setup_paddy_v2.zip (2,850 Kb)

To The Woods - a detailed comparison of Simple Random Sampling and Stratified Sampling

Students are asked to sample a forest to determine the number of large and small trees present. Through the forest runs a river that splits it into two areas of different size. The forest is markedly different on either side of the river. The game is aimed at comparing the ideas of simple random sampling against stratified sampling. Post-stratification is also discussed.

woods.zip (1,114 Kb)

Tomato - a game to help understand the issues involved in experimental design

tomato.zip (2,766 Kb)

TomatoHandout.doc (32 Kb)

Further documentation

Parin Kurji and Roger Stern. 2006. Learning statistics ... the fun way. BUCS, The University of Nairobi and Statistical Services Centre, The University of Reading. 36 pp.

Playing the game 2006 (pdf, 36 pages, 735 Kb)

Research Methods Resources

GenStat Discovery Edition