The Section on Statistics and Data Science Education is actively engaged in a number of member-led initiatives. Here is some information about them.
Mentoring Program
Founded in 2016, our section's Mentoring Program provides career advice and mentoring to help statisticians with a focus on teaching and education achieve their professional goals. The program connects early career statistics educators with experienced mentors. For details, see the The Mentoring Program Website.
The Mentoring Program is excited to invite interested mentees and mentors to apply for the upcoming academic year (August 1, 2024 to June 1, 2025). Fill out the application form if you wish to join the program or if you are already in the program and would like to continue. Applications received by July 15 will be given priority in matching. Every effort will be made to match those who have applied by July 15.
2023-2024 committee:
- Allison Theobold (Cal Poly), Chair
- Ella Burnham (Gustavus Adolphus College)
- Ciaran Evans (Wake Forest University)
- Jackie Herman (Northern Kentucky University)
- Jingwei Wu (Temple University)
- Jane Robertson Evia (Virginia Tech)
Fellowship Program for High School and Two-year College Teachers
This two-year fellowship program is designed for individuals who want to make an impact beyond their classroom setting and to increase their network among statistics and data science educators. During their two-year term, the fellows participate in the section's executive committee meetings, receive career mentorship from a section member, and lead a discussion about their teaching experiences at a statistics conference. New high school teacher fellows are selected in the even years and new college teacher fellows in the odd years. The fellowship runs on the academic calendar and so starts in August. This spring we will be advertising for the high school fellowship.
2024 (Current Fellows): Emily Buhnerkempe, University of Illinois Laboratory High School and Nathan Kenny, Hillcrest High School
2021 committee: Michael Posner, Jo Hardin, Rebecca Nugent, Amy Hogan, Kathy Kubo, and Christine Franklin
2020: no recipient due to pandemic
2019 recipients: Congratulations to Kathy Kubo (Department of Mathematics, College of the Canyons) and Amy Hogan (Mathematics Department at the Brooklyn Technical High School). See their bios.
Fellows Committee
Our section Fellows Committee exists to help ensure that section members who are worthy for induction as ASA Fellows are not overlooked. For next year, we seek the names of potential fellow candidates (along with suggestions of possible nominators) to help guide successful nominations. Early suggestions are most helpful, as it takes considerable time to prepare a compelling application.
Current Fellows committee:
- Kelly McConville
- Ann Cannon
- Nathan Tintle
Preparing To Teach
August 3rd, 2024 before JSM: This is a one-day workshop to prepare current graduate students for a future role as faculty responsible for teaching statistics and data science to undergraduate students across a variety of disciplines. We envision workshop participants become capable of developing innovative and pedagogically-sound learning experiences for their students inside and outside the classroom and using formative and summative assessment to guide their instructional practice.
The ultimate objective of this workshop is to increase the proportion of successful instructors who have the skills, capacity, and inclination to take on the challenges of complex data-oriented teaching in twenty-first century. The workshop also aims to promote interaction, networking, and community building among recent and soon to be PhDs in statistics, data science, and relevant fields who are interested in academic and teaching focused careers and to provide them with valuable insights from leaders in the field. Topics include teaching introductory statistics; teaching data science; teaching-focused career opportunities; opportunities for grants; sharing resources and staying connected. There will be opportunities for interaction and hands-on experience with active learning and computing technologies.
For more information on the workshop and to apply for participation in 2024, see preparingtoteach.org. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until capacity is reached, so check this page regularly or look out of an email announcement if you are an ASA Stat. Ed. member.
Member projects funded by the Statistics and Data Science Education Section
Each year the Statistics and Data Science Education Section funds a number of projects led by the Section members. The funding awards for 2023 are listed below. If you have a project that you would like to request funding for, please don’t hesitate to reach out to any of the Executive Committee members.
- Matthew Beckman, Penn State University, seed money to start a new Center for Statistics and Data Science Education Research at Penn State, $250 plus letter of support
- Ann Marie Weideman, Ms. Taylor Krajewski, and Dr. Jane Monaco, University of North Carolina, money to help support a new Biostatistics Undergraduate Summer Internship program at UNC, $500 plus letter of support
- Venessa Singhroy, Queensborough Community College, CUNY, Enhancing Introductory Statistics Education: Developing Parallel Labs with Excel, SPSS, JMP, and R to Alleviate Cognitive Load and Promote Coding Skills, $500
- Tyler George, Cornell College, Course Creation - Origins of Statistics and its Historical and Current Role in Society, $500