Rebecca Nichols, ASA Director of Education, and Roxy Peck, BAPS Program Chair
The American Statistical Association/National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Joint Committee on Curriculum in Statistics and Probability sponsored a Beyond AP Statistics (BAPS) workshop at the annual Joint Statistical Meetings in Seattle August 12. The BAPS workshop is offered for experienced AP Statistics teachers and consists of enrichment material just beyond the basic AP syllabus.
This year, 17 teachers from Washington and other parts of the country came to Seattle for a full-day BAPS workshop designed to strengthen and expand teachers’ statistics backgrounds by introducing them to topics just beyond the content of the typical AP Statistics course. The brainchild of former ASA/NCTM Joint Committee chair Jim Matis, BAPS has been offered at JSM for more than a decade.
This year’s BAPS workshop organized by Roxy Peck (Cal Poly) was divided into four sessions led by the following noted statisticians:
- Jeff Witmer, Oberlin College – Introduction to Bayesian Statistics
- Jessica Utts, University of California, Irvine – Multiple Regression
- Tom Short, John Carroll University – Meta-Analysis, Coefficient of Variation, and Regression Models in the Context of Plant-Soil Nutrient Interactions
- Beth Chance, Cal Poly – Sliding Down Classification and Regression Trees
Puget Sound Chapter members also welcomed the BAPS attendees. Other BAPS presenters in recent years have included Linda Young, Robin Lock, Allan Rossman, James Cochran, Bob Stephenson, Steve Miller, Roxy Peck, Brad Hartlaub, Tim Hesterburg, Dick Sheaffer, and Jim Matis.
Participants were given a pass to attend the exhibit hall at the Joint Statistical Meetings and a certificate of participation from the American Statistical Association certifying professional development hours. Optional 0.5 graduate credit hours is also available through Adams State University. Course attendees did not need to register for the Joint Statistical Meetings to participate in the BAPS workshop, although there is a discounted JSM registration available for K–12 teachers. Some BAPS participants opted to also attend the high-school sessions of the Meeting Within a Meeting (MWM) Statistics Workshop for Math and Science Teachers on August 11.
We are encouraging chapters and members to connect with local AP Statistics teachers and middle- and high-school mathematics and science teachers. Chapters also might consider sponsoring teachers to attend the next BAPS workshop, planned for JSM 2016 in Chicago. There are flyers about K–12 statistics education programs and resources to share with your local schools available on the the ASA website. Questions should be directed to Rebecca Nichols, ASA director of education, at rebecca@amstat.org.
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