USCOTS Has Another Exceptional Year

The fourth biennial USCOTS took place May 19–21 at the Research Triangle Embassy Suites in Cary, North Carolina. Hosted by the Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education (CAUSE) and the North Carolina State University Department of Statistics, the conference theme was “The Next BIG Thing.” The theme encouraged presenters and participants to think toward the future and examine what the next BIG thing in the field of statistics education is.

Attended by 400 people representing a range of institutions, departments, and countries, the conference provided an opportunity to learn and exchange ideas about teaching statistics at the undergraduate level through plenary talks, breakout sessions, posters, idea exchange sessions, and pre-conference workshops.

Plenary speakers Beth Chance and Allan Rossman, both of Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, opened the conference with “Debating the Next BIG Thing in Teaching Statistics.” Robert Gould of the University of California at Los Angeles presented “Citizen Statisticians: Modern Statistics for Modern Students,” which focused on the new kinds of data and how the changing nature of our field will affect the classroom of the future. Wayne Stewart of the University of Auckland, New Zealand, kicked off Saturday’s session with “Bayesian Statistics: The Second Coming,” and Robert delMas of the University of Minnesota presented “It Takes a Village: Future Directions for Statistics Education Research.”

The conference banquet, hosted by SAS/JMP, was held at the new conference center on the SAS campus. Deb Rumsey, USCOTS program chair, emceed the event. The CAUSEweb Resource of the Year Award was presented to Laurie Snell, Bill Peterson, and Jeanne Albert for their work on the Chance News wiki. Albert accepted the award with a tribute to Snell, who inspired the Chance project and kept it moving forward for nearly 20 years.

Dick Scheaffer, 2001 ASA president, was awarded the CAUSE/USCOTS Lifetime Achievement Award. George Cobb, Chris Franklin, and Ann Watkins paid tribute to Scheaffer’s longtime contributions as a statistics education innovator and driving force behind national efforts in statistics education, such as the AP Statistics and Quantitative Literacy movements.

Dennis Pearl of The Ohio State University delivered a humorous after-dinner talk focusing on “personalized education” as the next big thing in statistics education.

The Posters and Beyond sessions included 68 reviewed presentations, which showcased many good ideas. The winners exhibited their work during these sessions each day.

Eighteen invited breakout sessions offered a variety of topics, including statistics education research, using current technology and social media in face-to-face and online classrooms, using randomization techniques to teach statistics, and the second course and changing nature of the K–12 curriculum. There was also an USCOTS Theater session featuring education-based magic tricks by Mark Glickman of Boston University. Many of the plenary and breakout session presentations can be viewed on the USCOTS website.

USCOTS was preceded by the following four workshops, which were filled to capacity and presented the work of a National Science Foundation–funded project in statistics education over a two-day period:

Teaching the Big Ideas in Introductory Statistics, presented by Deborah Rumsey of The Ohio State University and Marjorie Bond of Monmouth College

Facilitating Student Projects in Elementary Statistics, presented by Brad Bailey of North Georgia College & State University

Teaching Statistics with R, presented by Danny Kaplan of Macalester College, Nick Horton of Smith College, and Randy Pruim of Calvin College

Computationally Intensive Methods in Teaching Introductory Statistics, presented by Webster West of Texas A&M University and Roger Woodard of North Carolina State University