Announcements: Spring
2017 Poster and Project Competitions
Introduce your K–12 students to statistics through the annual poster and project competitions directed by the ASA/NCTM Joint Committee on Curriculum in Statistics and Probability. The competitions offer opportunities for students to formulate questions and collect, analyze, and draw conclusions from data. Winners will be recognized with plaques, cash prizes, certificates, and calculators, and their names will be published in Amstat News. Posters (grades K–12) are due every year on April 1. Projects (grades 7–12) are due on June 1.
Judges Sought for Statistics Project Competition
The ASA/NCTM Joint Committee on Curriculum in Statistics and Probability is seeking judges for the 2017 Statistics Project Competition. Judging takes place via email during the summer and requires about four hours of your time. If interested, please email head judge, Nathan Kidwell.
April Is Mathematics and Statistics Awareness Month
Organize and host activities in April for Mathematics and Statistics Awareness Month! Past activities have included workshops, competitions, festivals, lectures, symposia, department open houses, math art exhibits, and math poetry readings. Please share your activities on social media. The goal is to increase public understanding of and appreciation for statistics and mathematics.
Registration Open for Meeting Within a Meeting (MWM)
Meeting Within a Meeting Statistics Workshop for Middle- and High-School Mathematics and Science Teachers will take place in conjunction with the Joint Statistical Meetings August 1–2 in Baltimore, Maryland. The workshop is meant to strengthen K–12 mathematics and science teachers’ understanding of statistics and provide them with hands-on activities aligned with the Common Core State Standards that they can use in their own classrooms. The cost of the workshop is $50, though scholarships are available.
Registration Live for Beyond AP Statistics (BAPS) Workshop
The ASA/NCTM Joint Committee is pleased to sponsor a Beyond AP Statistics Workshop August 2 at the annual Joint Statistical Meetings. Organized by Roxy Peck, the BAPS workshop is offered for experienced AP Statistics teachers and consists of enrichment material just beyond the basic AP syllabus. The cost of the workshop is $50.
Census at School: Clean U.S. and International Data Available
The ASA’s U.S. Census at School program is a free, international classroom project that engages students in grades 4–12 in statistical problem solving using their own real data. The students complete an online survey, analyze their class census results, and compare their class with random samples of students in the United States and other participating countries. Census at School New Zealand now hosts the random sampler for the international Census at School data, New Zealand data, and cleaned U.S. data. Their online random sampler allows students and teachers to take random samples up to size 1,000 from the international, New Zealand, or U.S. database and either download the data or start the online iNZight Lite software with the data already loaded and ready for analysis. Census at School – United States provides a random sampler of USA Census at School data for download (raw, messy data), but cleaned USA Census at School data is now available to download with the international data on the New Zealand site.
Share Your Love of Math with NCTM
You love math. Turn to NCTM for resources and a community that supports your passion. Check out featured resources for your classroom, eye-catching reads that will inspire you, and NCTM events—such as the Annual Meeting & Exposition, April 5–8 in San Antonio, Texas, and the Interactive Institutes, July 17–22, in Baltimore, Maryland—that provide opportunities to meet new peers and learn together! Use these I Love Math NCTM resources in your classroom and be sure to share with your colleagues.
Curtis Jacobs Memorial Award for Outstanding Statistics Projects (DC Metro Students)
The Curtis Jacobs Memorial Award for outstanding statistics projects encourages DC-area middle-school and high-school students to gain an understanding of the design of statistical studies and their uses. Nominations for the Curtis Jacobs Award are accepted in the spring of each year. The Washington Statistical Society (WSS) created the Curtis Jacobs Memorial Award in 1991 to honor the memory of Curtis Jacobs, a former Bureau of Labor Statistics statistician.
Teaching Statistics Through Data Investigations
Learn with colleagues near and far in this popular FREE online professional development course, designed for teachers of statistics in grades 6–12 and post-secondary contexts. This five-unit course can help you learn to teach statistics using investigations with real data and really cool tools! The course is offered several times per year and is structured to be self-directed and self-paced to meet the needs of busy professionals. You can earn 5–55 continuing education credits by completing a combination of course requirements and performance assessments (called micro-credentials). Offered through the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at NC State University.
Lead instructor: Hollylynne Lee, Professor of Mathematics and Statistics Education
Episode 28 of STATS+STORIES Available
Episode 28 of Stats+Stories, “If Your Friend Believes It, Then It Must Be True—Tracking the Spread of Fake News Across Networks,” features guest Filippo Menczer, a professor of informatics and computer science at Indiana University, Bloomington. He joined Stats+Stories to talk about the spread of information and misinformation in social media. To listen, visit the Stats+Stories website or iTunes.
Free Statistics Education Webinars
The ASA offers free webinars on K–12 statistics education topics. Recently posted webinars include “Statistics and Presidential Elections” by Clyde Tucker. This series was developed as part of the follow-up activities for the Meeting Within a Meeting Statistics Workshop. The Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education also offers free webinars on undergraduate statistics education topics. The ASA/American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges (AMATYC) Joint Committee also offers free statistics webinars through AMATYC. The ASA and its public education campaign, ThisIsStatistics, posted a sports statistics webinar featuring Dennis Lock, director of analytics with the Miami Dolphins; Stephanie Kovalchik, senior sport scientist with Tennis Australia; and Scott Evans, senior research scientist at Harvard University and member of the New England Symposium on Statistics in Sports.
Submit Lesson Plans to Statistics Teacher
STatistics Education Web (STEW) is now part of the new Statistics Teacher. Please consider submitting some of your K–12 statistics lesson plans for publication.
New ThisIsStatistics Resources for Statistics Teachers and Students
The ASA and its public education initiative, ThisIsStatistics, have developed new educational resources for teachers and students that showcase the value, fun, and benefit of statistics education and experience.
- Videos: “Statisticians Making a Difference” features Erik Andrejko of Climate Corporate, Valerie Bradley of BlueLabs, Samantha Lee-Ming Chiu of Booz Allen Hamilton, Jake Porway of DataKind, Megan Price of the Human Rights Data Analysis Group, and Marlyn Rodriguez of the Bureau of Economic Analysis, all of whom shed light on how their work in statistics is helping people to better understand the world around us and leaving a positive impact. “Employers Discuss the Demand for Statisticians” highlights executives from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Eli Lilly and Company, Westat, and Microsoft, among others, addressing the need for professionals with statistics and data science skills.
- Contest: Following in the footsteps of its successful election prediction contest last fall, we’ve launched Statsketball Tournament 2017—a contest for high-school and undergraduate students to use statistics rather than luck to determine the outcome of the March Madness men’s college basketball tournament. Though the participation deadline was March 15, please check the website to learn about the winners and their statistical prediction methods.
- Flyer: You’re not the only ones who appreciate the significance of statistics. Over the past year, media and business management publications have taken note of all statistics education and experience have to offer students and young professionals as a lucrative and sought-after career. We’ve compiled a sampling of the rankings and ratings so students can grasp the opportunities that lie ahead.
As always, check back often as we continue to update both the ASA and ThisIsStatistics websites with dynamic resources to help spread awareness of the value of statistics.
Upcoming Conferences
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Annual Meeting & Exposition
April 5 – 8, 2017, San Antonio, Texas
Stop by the ASA booth #827 in the exhibit hall for materials and resources
U.S. Conference on Teaching Statistics (USCOTS)
May 18 – 20, 2017, The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, State College, Pennsylvania
Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM)
July 29 – August 3, 2017, Baltimore, Maryland
Meeting Within a Meeting Statistics Workshop for Mathematics and Science Teachers
August 1 – 2, 2017, Baltimore, Maryland (JSM 2017)
Beyond AP Statistics (BAPS) Workshop
August 2, 2017, Baltimore, Maryland (JSM 2017)
NCTM Regional Conferences
