Mathematics and statistics faculty attend conference on teaching statistics

Andi Metts, Heather Barker, Kristen Mazur, Laura Taylor, Lisa Rosenberg and Ryne VanKrevelen attended the United States Conference on Teaching Statistics at The Pennsylvania State University in State College, Pennsylvania, on May 18-20, 2017. 

​The theme of the conference was “Show me the Data” and additionally, the importance of statistics in the emerging field of data science was a main topic of discussion.  This conference was co-sponsored by the Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education (CAUSE) and the National Institute of Statistical Sciences (NISS).

Metts also attended a 1.5-day pre-conference workshop on “Teaching Introductory Statistics with Simulation-Based Inference” held by pre-eminent statistics educators Beth Chance, Allan Rossman, Todd Swanson and Jill VanderStoep.

Barker, VanKrevelen and Taylor presented a poster titled “Extending Hands-on Activities Using StatCrunch to Teach Statistical Inference.”  The poster featured three hands-on randomization-based activities for the STS 110: Introduction to Statistical Reasoning class that were repeated on a large-scale using applets in StatCrunch.  A popular feature of their poster was the “box of beads” that allowed participants to take random samples from the “box of beads” and to add their findings to a collaborative poster.