St. Lawrence Faculty Present at the United States Conference on Teaching Statistics (USCOTS)
Six St. Lawrence faculty members traveled to Ames, Iowa to share their expertise and help to improve the teaching and learning of statistics across the nation.
Drs. Jessica Chapman, Matt Higham, Lillian Li, Patti Frazer Lock, Robin Lock, and Ivan Ramler traveled to Ames, Iowa, to continue to discuss how to further improve the teaching and learning of statistics. The heavy representation of SLU faculty at the conference showcases how passionate each of St. Lawrence’s statisticians are about improving statistics education. Faculty presented posters, led breakout sessions, led workshops, and attended sessions led by prominent statistical educators throughout the country to talk more about how to further elevate St. Lawrence’s thriving programs in Statistics and in Data Science.
Dr. Jessica Chapman and Dr. Matt Higham led a breakout session on modernizing the undergraduate-level mathematical statistics course (STAT 326 at St. Lawrence University). More than 30 people met during the session to discuss how best to update this statistical theory course as the field of statistics continues to evolve. Drs. Chapman and Higham shared some of the ways in which St. Lawrence’s course has evolved and modernized within the past few years.
Dr. Patti Frazer Lock led a breakout session on modeling courses on the new College Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE) recommendations. Dr. Lock is co-chair of the national steering committee for the revision. Many conference participants joined the session to ask questions and share resources.
Dr. Ivan Ramler and Dr. Robin Lock (recipient of the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award in Statistics Education) ran a pre-conference workshop based on the NSF–funded SCORE (Sports Content for Outreach, Research, and Education) project to help faculty develop sharable resources for using sports examples in teaching statistics. They also led a breakout session during the conference to discuss ways participants can engage students in using and producing SCORE materials.
Robin also served as a discussion leader for the pre-conference Liberal Arts Statistics Symposium which provided an opportunity for faculty from liberal arts colleges to share the joys and challenges of teaching courses and developing programs in statistics and data science.
Finally, Dr. Chapman and Dr. Ramler also presented a poster about the LAS Scholar Program (funded by the NSF S-STEM program). Their poster highlighted how statistics and data science was integrated into a STEM education program.