Barker, lecturer in statistics, was named 2022 Tinker Fellow through the Concord Consortium. As part of her Tinker Fellowship, Barker will create activities and datasets with a DEI pedagogy using CODAP as the data analysis environment.
Heather Barker, lecturer in statistics, was chosen as one of two Tinker Fellows through the Robert F. Tinkers Fellow Program, which is a part of the Concord Consortium.
The Concord Consortium is a nonprofit educational research and development organization based in Concord, Massachusetts and Emeryville, California. The theme for this year’s Tinkers Fellows Program, which aims to promote innovation, creativity and cross-disciplinary conversations, focuses on inclusion, equity and access in STEM Education.
The fellowship brings each fellow to the Concord Consortium’s campus, in either Massachusetts or California, to work alongside the staff for two weeks on a project of their choosing. Each fellow is also awarded a $5,000 honorarium.
During her time, Barker plans on creating data exploration activities for students from middle grades through introductory statistics college courses that include datasets around social justice issues. These data explorations will use CODAP (Common Online Data Analysis Platform), a free dynamic statistical software tool created by innovators at Concord.
At Elon, Barker teaches statistics and pre-service education courses, using CODAP as her primary data investigation tool. She helps students ask questions about equity and social justice issues as reflected in datasets, such as those from the ACLU, while acknowledging to her students that she is not an expert in these areas. Her goal is to give students both “a safe place to have these difficult conversations and the statistical tools to form and support their own opinions.”
Barker said she’s excited and grateful for this opportunity to work with experts at the Concord Consortium to make her own statistics classes an engaging and productive space to engage in social justice issues.