"Mini-studies of prevalence": A way to introduce probability bases and their relationship with data analysis

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Abstract
This paper exposes the design of a formative activity, and the students’ achievement, in an introductory course to biostatistics offered in 2021 at a Colombian public university, under the modality of remote classes (due to pandemic restrictions). The activity intended to promote probabilistic reasoning and to develop some fundamental statistical skills, required for the future professional practices of the learners. The task was related to the estimation of the prevalence of a characteristic associated with physical activity habits or sedentary behavior for a subpopulation of teenagers, delimited for academic purposes. The achievement of learning objectives differs between groups of students; the teamwork seems to be related with performance differences, as well as the self- perception of some study habits’ favorability.