Dear Colleagues,
We write to make you aware of activities for This is Statistics this coming year. As a reminder, [ http://thisisstatistics.org/ | This is Statistics ] is the American Statistical Association public relations campaign to inform students, teachers, and parents about the many reasons to take a statistics course, if not many courses or a degree.
First, we are very excited that [ https://www.nytimes.com/column/whats-going-on-in-this-graph?emc=edit_ln_201… | What’s Going On in This Graph ] (WGOITG), an activity for grades 7-12 with the New York Times Learning Network that started last year, will be [ https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/27/learning/whats-going-on-in-this-graph-is… | weekly this year starting September 12 ] . WGOITG facilitates teacher-led discussions of graphs that have appeared in the NYT and is meant to help students better understand and critically interpret graphs. For more on WGOITG, follow [ http://www.statisticsteacher.org/2018/03/15/wgoitg/ | this link ] .
Second there will be two This is Statistics contests—with both high school and undergraduate categories—this year in which we hope you will engage your students. The fall contest, to be launched the second half of September, is a public data challenge focusing on the opioid epidemic. Please stay tuned for further details, monitor thisisstatistics.org, or follow @thisisstats. The spring contest will be the third annual Statsketball contest, engaging students in making predictions relating to the NCAA championship tournament for basketball. Please watch for details and announcement early in 2019.
Information on the opioid contest and WGOITG is below.
If you have ideas for This is Statistics and expanding our outreach on statistics, let us know.
Student Contest: Public Health Data Challenge
As of 2016, 2.1 million Americans have an opioid use disorder, and drug overdose deaths are now the leading cause of injury death in the United States. But some of the country’s top minds are working to fight this epidemic, and statisticians are helping to lead the charge. This is Statistic’s second annual fall contest challenges high school and college students to use statistics to dig into the data and come up with their own ideas to help end this important public health issue. Check [ http://thisisstatistics.org/public-health-data-challenge/ | ThisIsStatistics.org ] for updates in September.
What’s Going on In This Graph? Stats for Students
“What’s Going on in This Graph?” returns on September 12 for the 2018-19 school year, featuring a data visualization from The New York Times stripped of contextual information. Then, it’s up to students to use their critical thinking skills and ask questions to deduce what the graph represents. Encourage students you know to participate in the discussion on [ https://www.nytimes.com/column/whats-going-on-in-this-graph | The New York Times Learning Network website ] or with the tag #NYTGraphChat.
Thanks,
Rebecca
Rebecca Nichols
Director of Education
American Statistical Association
Promoting the Practice and Profession of Statistics ®
732 North Washington Street
Alexandria, VA 22314-1943
[ callto:%28703%29%20684-1221 | (703) 684-1221 ] , Ext. 1877
Fax: [ callto:%28703%29%20684-3768 | (703) 684-3768 ]
[ https://ucs.psu.edu/zimbra/blocked::http://www.amstat.org/ | www.amstat.org ]
Webinar: Tuesday, August 21 , 2018 2:00-3:00 PM EDT
Presented by : Ryne VanKrevelen, Lisa Rosenberg, and Laura Taylor (Elon University)
Title: Introductory Statistics Projects Using 'The Islands' Virtual World Versus Student-Collected Data
Please sign up to register, link to register : [ https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.causew… | https://www.causeweb.org/cause/webinar/teaching/2018-08 ] [ https://www.causeweb.org/cause/webinar/teaching/2017-10 ]
Abstract: The Islands is a virtual world, created by Dr. Michael Bulmer from the University of Queensland, that can be used as a vehicle for student-led data collection. The Islands allows students to encounter “real-world” issues like obtaining consent, respondents who don’t tell the truth, measurement variability, and more in a safe environment. We have begun the early stages of investigating how student enjoyment, confidence, and learning differ between projects that use The Islands versus those that have students collect their own “real-world” data. In this webinar, we will introduce several features of The Islands, explain how we have used it in our introductory statistics classes, and share initial results from our research comparing these two types of projects.
Logistics: The webinar will be conducted using the GoToWebinar software platform. A computer with internet access is all you need. GoToWebinar offers audio participation through your computer microphone.
All registered webinar attendees will receive a confirmation email generated by the GoToWebinar system upon registering. This email includes a link to enter the webinar . Keep this confirmation email as you will use this link to enter the webinar – you will also be sent a reminder with the link two hours before the webinar begins. Once you leave the webinar , you cannot re-enter. If you have not used GoToWebinar before, please review the information below. The webinar will be recorded and the archived version will be available on-line within a few days following the presentation, if you are unable to attend.
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The CAUSE Cartoon Caption Contest for August is now taking entries
The Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education is happy to announce our 27th Cartoon Caption Contest (that’s right – more than two years now). Each month a cartoon, drawn by British cartoonist John Landers, will be posted for you and your students to suggest statistical captions. Note that the cartoons are posted at the beginning of the month month and submissions are due at the end of the month regardless of when the winners are announced. Student entries are always welcome and this can be a fun exercise to assign to your class.
The next cartoon and the entry rules for the contest ending August 31st are at
[ https://www.causeweb.org/cause/caption-contest/august/2018/submissions | https://www.causeweb.org/cause/caption-contest/august/2018/submissions ]
The best captions will be posted on CAUSEweb and the winner(s) will receive their choice of a coffee mug or t-shirt imprinted with the cartoon.
Enjoy.
July Results: The July caption contest had 19 entries and featured a cartoon of a diverse group of people staring at a time series plot. The plot of sales versus time shows a generally downward trend but with a single very large blip to a high value at a single time point. The winning caption for the July contest was “It's always the same: just before the exam, book sales spike,” written by Karsten Luebke from FOM University in Germany. The caption should prove helpful in discussing how context matters in thinking about trend and “Seasonal” patterns in time series. Honorable mentions this month went to Jim Alloway from EMSQ Associates for his submission: “… and this is why we validate the data before plotting it” and to Larry Lesser from The University of Texas at El Paso for his entry “Fireworks sales skyrocket the first few days of July.”
Thanks to everyone who submitted a caption and remember to let your students know about the CAUSE caption contest!
Help make Chance News the best resource possible
CAUSEweb would like to encourage new contributors to the Chance Wiki < [ https://www.causeweb.org/wiki/chance/index.php/Main_Page | https://www.causeweb.org/wiki/chance/index.php/Main_Page ] >. As you know, Chance News provides synopses of recent news stories that contain interesting ideas from probability and statistics, with the goal of providing examples and discussion questions for classroom use.
There are 3 levels at which people can make contributions. In increasing order of effort required, these are:
(1) Send an e-mail to Bill Peterson < wpeterso(a)middlebury.edu > with a link to a story that looks promising for inclusion.
(2) Even better, include a few sentences or short paragraph with a summary of the story and/or pointers to the salient statistical issues. We can then edit it into a wiki post.
(3) Advanced level: Contribute a full Wiki post! This requires an account with editing permissions, which we can set up on request. Once you have this, click on the edit button for an existing story to see how it is constructed. It is not hard to pick up the wiki syntax in this way.
Your help in providing up-to-date stories in any of these forms will be much appreciated!