SIGMAA
on Stat Education
Letter
from the Chair
Nancy
Boynton
I have truly
enjoyed serving as your chair. The
Executive Committee has been working hard to organized a number sessions for
MathFest and the Joint Meetings. I hope that we will see you at some of
them.
The SIGMAA
congratulates Allan Rossman from Cal Poly, San Luis
Obispo for being a recipient of the 2010 Haimo Award
for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics. Many of us have known of Allan’s
contributions to statistics education.
It’s nice to see them more widely recognized. Allan was the first past chair of the
SIGMAA and worked to get the SIGMAA started. He has written several textbooks and is
now the Chief
Reader for the Advanced Placement Statistics Exam. He has lead workshops on statistics
education for many different groups.
We can’t begin to name all of his contributions.
The SIGMAA on
Statistics Education has lots of plans for MathFest in
Pittsburgh and the Joint Mathematics Meetings in New Orleans. We have 18 talks scheduled for our
Contributed Paper Sessions, Innovative
Ideas for an Introductory Statistics Course at MathFest. Part
I will be on Friday afternoon and Part II will be on Saturday morning. If you are at MathFest check out the interesting talks at these two
sessions.
JMM
2011
At the Joint
Meetings in January we are sponsoring a Contributed Paper Session scheduled for
Sunday afternoon, Alternative Approaches
to Traditional Introductory Statistics Courses.
Do you teach a
non-traditional selection of topics or use different methods in your
introductory statistics course? Do
you teach topics in a different order from the standard descriptives, probability, basic
inference? What have you let go of
from the traditional course? Tell
us about your course – especially what makes it successful. We encourage contributions from
specialized statistics courses such as those for business majors, biostats, etc. Also of interest are different methods
of delivery, such as hybrid or on-line courses.
Successful
teaching in statistics and the GAISE guidelines promote conceptual
understanding, and encourage active participation. We invite submissions that provide
details about how different approaches have proven successful in teaching
introductory statistics courses.
They may be organized to attract the attention and interest of students
or to serve students with particular needs.
Think about
contributing a talk. Presenters
will be considered for the Dex Whittinghill Award for
Best Contributed Paper. Speaking of
the Dex Whittinghill Award, it was presented to Anna
Bargagliotti from the University of Memphis, for her
talk, "Achieving Statistical Literacy in Elementary School Using Current Popular
Curricula" at JMM 2009. Come to the
Business Meeting and Reception in New Orleans to find out who wins for the 2010
talks.
We were not able
to give a Student Poster Award for JMM 2010. We will be looking for judges for the
student statistics posters at JMM 2011.
Please watch for a call for volunteers.
At
the Joint Meetings, Michael Posner and Carolyn Cuff will present the
mini-course:
Teaching
Introductory Statistics
(for instructors new to teaching intro stats)
Organizers:
Michael Posner, Villanova
University, and Carolyn Cuff,
Westminster
College.
This
mini-course exposes
participants to the big ideas of statistics and the
ASA-endorsed
Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics
Education
report. It considers
ways to engage students in statistical literacy and thinking
and
contrast conceptual and
procedural understanding in the first statistics course.
Participants
will engage in many of the classic activities that all statistics
instructors
should know. Internet
sources of real data, activities, and best practices articles
will
be examined.
Participants will find out how they can continue to answer the
three
questions by becoming
involved in statistics education related conferences,
newsletters, and
groups.
At JMM 2011 we
are sponsoring the panel:
Teaching Statistics
Online
Recent years have seen a rapid expansion of the number of courses taught online, and current budget pressures are leading more institutions to consider expanding their online course offerings. However, effective instruction online requires a very substantial time commitment from faculty, and involves much more than simply taking the materials from a traditional classroom course and making them available online. This panel brings together statistics instructors and education researchers with experience teaching online and hybrid courses to share advice and resources for teaching statistics online. The American Statistical Association’s Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE) Report strongly emphasizes the importance of fostering active learning in the “classroom”; panelists will address strategies for implementing this guideline in an online learning environment.
Panelists:
Michelle Everson, University
of Minnesota
Patricia Humphrey, Georgia Southern University
Michael Miner,
American Public University
Sue Schou, Idaho State University
Also
at JMM 2011, with the MAA-ASA Joint Committee on Undergraduate Statistics and
SIGMAA Bio we
are co-sponsoring:
Creating/Improving
the Biomathematics/Biostatistics Course
With the growing
demand for quantitatively skilled biologists, the creation of new and update of
previously established biomathematics, biostatistics, or bioinformatics courses
is a popular topic and necessary discussion. The recommendations of the Bio 2010
report have proposed important modifications to these curricula. The faculty on this
panel have all been involved on their campuses in shaping these
courses. They will address
questions like: What does this
course look like? What topics are
covered? What are the best
practices? Who are the target
audiences? What are the challenges
of creating, marketing, getting such a course approved? What are the future directions of these
courses? Ample time will be left
for participant discussion.
Panelists:
Pam Ryan, Truman
University
Fred Adler, University of Utah
Laurie Heyer, Davidson College
Deborah Nolan, UC Berkeley
(tentative)
With the MAA-ASA
Joint Committee on Undergraduate Statistics we are
co-sponsoring:
Report
from the International Conference on Teaching Statistics: A World View of
Statistics Education
This panel will discuss
the current state of statistical education around the world. Each of the panelists is actively
involved in statistics education and recently attended the International
Conference on Teaching Statistics in Slovenia. They will formally address a number of
questions concerning statistical education at all levels (primary and secondary
schools, colleges and universities, the workplace). Each will identify differences in
statistical instruction among countries and provide reasons for such
differences. The most appropriate
type of statistics - statistical literacy, applied statistics, and mathematical
statistics for different countries will be discussed. Each panelist will explain what other
countries can learn from the way statistics is taught in the United States and
what the United States can learn from other countries. The numerous advantages of attending an
international conference will also be presented. At the end of session there will
be ample time for audience participation.
Panelists:
Rob Carver,
Stonehill College
Katherine Halvorsen, Smith College
John McKenzie, Babson
College
Milo Schield, Augsburg College
Gail Burrill, Michigan State University
(tentative)
You may recall
that the SIGMAA provided some travel grants to help members attend ICOTS-8. Watch for reports from the recipients in
the next newsletter.
I look forward
to seeing many of you either at MathFest in Pittsburgh
or JMM in New Orleans!
Executive
Committee
Nancy Boynton,
Chair
boynton@fredonia.edu
Michael Posner,
Past-chair Michael.Posner@villanova.edu
Brian Gill,
Chair-elect
bgill@spu.edu
Cora Neal, Secretary
Cora.Neal@sonoma.edu
Sue Schou, Treasurer
schosue@isu.edu