Building a Multiple Linear Regression Model With LEGO Brick Data

Abstract

We present an innovative activity that uses data about LEGO sets to help students self-discover multiple linear regressions. Students are guided to predict the price of a LEGO set posted on Amazon.com (Amazon price) using LEGO characteristics such as the number of pieces, the theme (i.e., product line), and the general size of the pieces. By starting with graphical displays and simple linear regression, students are able to develop additive multiple linear regression models as well as interaction models to accomplish the task. We provide examples of student responses to the activity and suggestions for teachers based on our experiences. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.

Keywords:

• Additive models
• Indicator variables
• Interaction
• Multivariate thinking

Acknowledgments

We thank our students for their participation in the LEGO activity and for giving us permission to share their responses. We also thank to Ann Brearley, Philip Dixon, Jackie Herman, Laura Le, Bob Stephenson, Frank Ziegler, the anonymous reviewers, and editors who spent time providing thoughtful feedback that helped us greatly improve this article.

Supplemental Material

Activity- Exploring Multiple Regression-JMP.pdf and Activity-Exploring Multiple Regression-R Shiny.pdf contain the activity that is described in this article. The first provides instructions for students on how to complete the activity using JMP and the second provides instructions for students on how to complete the activity using an R Shiny App. LEGO Shiny App Code.R includes the R code used to create the R Shiny App used in the activity created for students. Lego.population.csv includes the population of data and Lego.sample.csv includes the sample of data used for the activity. Documentation-Codebook.pdf includes a short description of these datasets along with a list of the variables with their definitions. LEGO Data Scraping Code.R includes the R code used to scrape the LEGO data from Brickset (Brickset, n.d.) and BrickInstructions.com (n.d.).