April was an important month for the ASA’s outreach effort to mathematics, statistics, and science teachers.
ASA Director of Education Rebecca Nichols traveled to San Antonio, Texas, for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) annual conference to represent the ASA at its exhibition booth. Members of the ASA/NCTM Joint Committee presented at NCTM and also assisted with the booth.
NCTM is the largest mathematics education organization. Their 2017 annual meeting was attended by 7,000 K–12 math and statistics teachers, teacher educators, and university faculty. The ASA has been exhibiting at the NCTM conference for about 20 years.
On Display
The ASA also had an exhibit booth—for the first time—at the annual conference of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA).
ASA K–12 Statistical Ambassador Christine Franklin highly recommended the ASA make the NSTA conference a regular destination because 10,000 people attend. “The science community recognizes the importance of statistical reasoning in the science field and K–12 science curriculum,” she said. “They also welcome assistance with teacher professional development and collaboration with the statistics community. Many attendees expressed to me their appreciation of the ASA having a presence at the conference.”
Later this summer, the ASA will exhibit at the annual meeting of the American School Counselor Association in Denver. Paul Buckley, an ASA member who teaches at Gonzaga High School in Washington, DC, will represent the association.
Those staffing the booth enjoyed talking with K–12 math teachers, AP Statistics teachers, teacher educators, and other university faculty who stopped by. The booth included K–12 and undergraduate statistics education resources, information about careers in statistics, and contributions statisticians make to society.
A highlight at the booth was Statistics Teacher (ST), a new online journal published by the ASA/NCTM Joint Committee on Curriculum in Statistics and Probability for Grades K–12. ST supports the teaching and learning of statistics through education articles, lesson plans, announcements, professional development opportunities, technology, assessment, and classroom resources.
Bridging the Gap Between Common Core State Standards and Teaching Statistics, designed to help educators bring statistics into elementary- and middle-school classrooms, and Making Sense of Statistical Studies, which provides investigations for upper middle-school or high-school students to gain experience in designing and analyzing statistical studies, were available for purchase at the booth.
For free were copies of Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE) Pre-K–12 Report and the Statistical Education of Teachers (SET) report. Booth staffers also shared information about Census at School, a free international classroom project that engages students in grades 4–12 in statistical problem solving using their own real data, as well as the Meeting Within a Meeting (MWM) statistics workshop for math and science teachers and Beyond AP Statistics (BAPS) workshop, which will be held in conjunction with the 2017 Joint Statistical Meetings in Baltimore.
Displayed at the booth were winning posters from the ASA Poster Competition for K–12 students and information about the ASA Project Competition (written report) for students in grades 7–12.
Booth staffers gave out free one-year trial K–12 teacher memberships and displayed copies of Significance and CHANCE magazines. The ASA baby, toddler, and youth shirts for sale were also a reason some teachers stopped by the booth, which provided an opportunity for those at the booth to chat about statistics education resources.
To aid NCTM attendees interested in statistics, Nichols and ASA K–12 Statistical Ambassador Christine Franklin highlighted statistics-related talks.
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