A realistic situation, proposed from data generated within the GeOrder Simulator to elicit the statistical reasoning

Abstract

Construction and handling of important statistical concepts, such as statistical estimators computing, or organization of data in graphs and tables, are oftenly taught in a strict algorithmic manner. As consequence, students abilities regarding experimentation, data sampling, data collecting, data organization and results interpretation, are limited and their solutions lack of statistical sustain. In this work, in study class consisting in students of the Logistic and Transport Engineering program, it is developed and implemented a realistic problem situation: a sales e-commerce company has to decide, by analyzing received orders, whether to implement its own delivery system or hire a third-party delivery company. The software GeOrder Simulator is employed to generate random data for weight and location of simulated orders and the data are presented to students in tabular and iconic, onto a map geolocation, semiotic representation registers. The research aim of this work, is to analyze, from the perspective of Semiotic Representation Theory, the effect onto the statistical reasoning that is provoked in students when they solve the realistic problem situation with the data generated by the GeOrder Simulator. The results show that the addressing of the realistic problem situation together with the usage of the GeOrder Simulator, elicited the statistical reasoning in the students since it is observed the integration of statistical concepts within their argumentation, by means of the coordination of tabular, graphical and numerical semiotic representation registers.