Beth Goodman
Several months ago, Jill Montaquila asked for volunteers to work at the ASA booth during the USA Engineering and Science Festival that was held on the National Mall in Washington, DC. My first reaction was that, of course, I would volunteer. Being a high-school teacher, I wanted to be part of something that would allow me to share my love of mathematics and statistics. Additionally, I thought it would be a good opportunity for my children. The experience did not disappoint; in fact, it exceeded my expectations.
Washington, DC, was abuzz with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and outreach on October 23 and 24. When my children and I exited the Metro station, there was no doubt in my mind we had entered Science Central. There were stage areas arranged with science demonstrations. Aisle after aisle was set up with booths, each with hands-on activities to engage the youngest and oldest.
Of course, the ASA booth—themed Discovery Through Interactive Statistics—had its own hands-on activities. Children and adults were able to simulate a catch-and-release population estimation experiment using beads. A bag of colored beads represented a population of fish. The “researcher” removed a small portion of the “fish” from the “lake” (a plastic bag) and replaced these with bright orange beads. Then, the bag was shaken and a new sample was taken to find a sample proportion. While this activity wasn’t high profile, the folks who wandered into the booth and participated in it were highly engaged and happened to learn a little bit about ativan no prescription fedex statistics, too.
Resources for Teachers
In addition to the two experiments, the ASA booth displayed literature about careers in statistics and information for teachers. These resources can be found on the American Statistical Society’s website under outreach, education, and careers.
The big draw for the ASA’s booth was Ellen Gundlach’s Hands-On Activity Competition grand-prize winning entry, which focused on parachute design and testing. A ladder was placed in front of the booth and statisticians stood from it, dropping little plastic men attached to parachutes. As people passed, they were asked which parachute was best. The question generated conversation with adults and children about what “best” really means and allowed discussion about how we could quantify it.
Using the power of observation, many were able to identify two useful measurements: accuracy and the time the parachute took to descend. Once participants had the opportunity to touch and examine the parachute material, we ran a test on the parachutes by dropping the chosen skydiver from a height of about 9 feet and measuring the distance it landed from the target and the length of time from drop to landing. We marked the measurements on a graph that was used as a talking point to discuss predictions, variation, mean and median, and various other statistical concepts.
One of the big benefits of this festival was that people from all walks of life, all age groups, and all education levels were able to learn about so many areas of STEM education and outreach. I believe everyone who engaged with the members working the ASA booth left with a little more knowledge and a more positive attitude about statistics.
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