M&M's^®, Sampling, and X-Bar/R Control Charts: A Demonstration and Validation

Relaying statistical concepts to students is difficult without "real-world" examples and corresponding data. However, it is difficult to obtain data for student usage, let alone have the data mean something to the student. This paper attempts to provide students with a hands-on demonstration to aid in their understanding and application of control charts using the tangibility of M&M's ^® . During the demonstration, students gain an understanding of how to perform sampling, evaluate basic statistics, and leverage tangible data to create x-bar & R charts. The demonstration's effectiveness is then assessed using a post-hoc data analysis of student examination data to evaluate the demonstration's effect on student performance.