Newsletter of the Section on Statistical Education Section of the American Statistical Association


Contents of Volume 5 Number 1:

  • Message from the Section Chair
  • Editors
  • Subscription Information
  • "Interview with E. Jacquelin Dietz" by Sherry Wasserstein
  • "Best Contributed Paper Award" by Ron Wasserstein
  • "JSE is now an ASA Publication"
  • "AP Statistics, 1998" by Richard L. Scheaffer
  • "Paul Velleman Received the 1998 EDUCOM Medal" by E. Jacquelin Dietz
  • "International Research Forum on Statistical Reasoning, Thinking, and Literacy (SRTL)"
  • "IASE Round Table Conference in Tokyo, 2000"
  • "ICOTS-5" by Brian Phillips
  • "Ten Websites Every Statistics Instructor Should Bookmark" by Robin Lock
  • Mark your calendar
  • Attention K-12 School Members
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    MESSAGE FROM THE SECTION CHAIR

    Christine E. McLaren
    University of California, Irvine

    Newsletter for the Section on Statistical Education
    Volume 5, Number 1 (Winter 1999)


    Greetings! I am delighted to begin serving my term as 1999 Chair of the section. I recall when I first attended a Section mixer and business meeting held at the Joint Statistical Meetings. I was struck by the enthusiasm and warmth of Section members. Since that time, many exciting initiatives have highlighted the strengths of our membership. For example, we now have a Section newsletter thanks to the hard work of Carol Blumberg, Joan Garfield, Tom Moore, and Terry King.

    The Journal of Statistics Education is another major Section achievement. A purpose of JSE is to disseminate knowledge for the improvement of statistics education at all levels. In this issue of the newsletter, we feature an interview with Jackie Dietz, founding Editor of JSE. In addition, we include a contributed article by Robin Lock, co- editor of the JSE Section "Data Sets and Stories". Lock tells of useful web sites that can be used as resources for teaching.

    We are also proud to describe the outstanding achievements of Paul Velleman, winner of the 1998 Educom medal. Velleman was honored for his innovative uses of technology in education.

    One purpose of the newsletter is to notify Section members of recent and future statistical education conferences. In this issue, we concentrate on international conferences for educators and give in-depth descriptions of conference topics, issues, and goals.

    Please contact me with your ideas and suggestions for Section activities. I look forward to working with you this year.

    Christine E. McLaren
    University of California, Irvine
    Division of Epidemiology
    224 Irvine Hall
    Irvine, CA 92697-7550
    (949) 824-4007
    Fax: (949) 824-4773
    e-mail:
    cmclaren@uci.edu

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    EDITORS

    Newsletter for the Section on Statistical Education
    Volume 5, Number 1 (Winter 1999)


    Comments and suggestions for the improvement of the newsletter are most welcome, and should be sent to a member of the editorial board.

    Terry King
    Department of Mathematics & Statistics
    Northwest Missouri State University
    Maryville, Missouri 64468-6001
    (660) 562-1805
    Fax: (660) 562-1188
    tlking@mail.nwmissouri.edu

    Carol Joyce Blumberg
    Dept. of Mathematics and Statistics
    Winona State University
    Winona, MN 55987-5838
    (507) 457-5589
    Fax: (507) 457-5376
    wncarolj@vax2.winona.msus.edu

    Joan Garfield
    Department of Educational Psychology
    University of Minnesota
    332 Burton Hall
    128 Pillsbury Dr., S.E.
    Minneapolis MN 55455
    (612) 625-0337
    Fax: (612) 624-8241
    jbg@maroon.tc.umn.edu

    Tom Moore
    Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
    Grinnell College
    Grinnell IA 50112
    (515) 269-4206
    Fax: (515) 269-4984
    mooret@ac.grin.edu

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    SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION

    Newsletter for the Section on Statistical Education
    Volume 5, Number 1 (Winter 1999)


    Hard copy
    All members of the Section on Statistical Education are automatically sent a hard copy of this newsletter. Other ASA members can receive a hard copy by joining the Section on Statistical Education the next time they renew their ASA memberships (Dues are only $5.00). Non-members of ASA may receive a hard copy by sending $8.00 along with Name, Complete Mailing Address (if within the U.S.A. please include your 9-digit zip code), Telephone, Fax, and e-mail address to:
    Marie Argana
    American Statistical Association
    732 North Washington Street
    Alexandria VA 22314-1943.

    Electronic
    If you wish to receive the newsletter via email contact Terry King (see Editors). Please make sure to include your name and complete e-mail address in your message.

    Web Versions
    All issues of the newsletter are also available on the World Wide Web at: http://renoir.vill.edu/cgi-bin/short/StatEd.cgi, and can be reached through the Statistical Education Section home page as well. Three different versions are available. The first is a "frames" version which displays the contents and articles on the same screen, along with contact information. The second and third Web versions of the Newsletter are both non-frames versions. The second version accesses each article as a separate file. If a surfer chooses to print an article, only that one article will appear on paper. The third version is a continuous feed version. That is, if a surfer chooses to print, then the entire newsletter will appear on paper.

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    INTERVIEW WITH E. JACQUELIN DIETZ

    Sherry Wasserstein
    Freelance Journalist

    Newsletter for the Section on Statistical Education
    Volume 5, Number 1 (Winter 1999)


    The American Statistical Association is about to adopt a new project. But to the founding editor, it may seem as though the adoption is more akin to accepting the role of parenting a baby.

    When E. Jacquelin Dietz became the founding editor of the Journal of Statistics Education (JSE) and saw that first publication birthed in July of 1993, she was already envisioning the idea of the ASA accepting the parenting role of the journal. The first electronic journal on post-secondary teaching of statistics broke ground with its introduction, and at its address of www.stat.ncsu.edu/info/jse/ it has just finished its Vol. 6, No. 3 edition. It has grown to such an international extent and was so widely successful, that it now has a mirror site at Universita' degli Studi in Perugia, Italy.

    The journal was originally sponsored by the Department of Statistics at North Carolina State University (home of Professor Dietz) and funded in part by grants from the Exxon Education Foundation and the Fund for the Improvement of Post-secondary Education (FIPSE) from the U.S. Department of Education. However, Dietz believed that the time had come to give JSE the prestige and stability that would come from sponsorship by a professional society like the ASA. And as has happened in many of her pursuits, the dream is about to become reality. In August the ASA Board of Directors agreed to take over the management of the journal, with the take-off date in January.

    Encouraged to "dream big dreams" by colleagues at a workshop where there was cooperative brainstorming about the idea of an electronic journal, Dietz said they decided to "go ahead and take the lead here at NCSU." And that "big dream" has turned out to be a very successful dream fulfilled, after much hard work and perseverance, according to Dr. Daniel L. Solomon, professor at the NCSU's Department of Statistics. "Clearly, everybody would mention that her primary contribution would be the journal," he said. "It was an heroic effort and it continues to be an heroic effort. The idea was that it would be a perfect venture for ASA...so she just had to do it, prove its merit and then turn it over to ASA."

    But according to Solomon, that project was typical for Dietz, whom he said had a "strong social conscience." He cited her contributions in teaching and research as examples of other areas where Dietz has excelled. He noted that among her strong points as a teacher was her ability to reach students who came to class with great fear...the graduate students in the social and behavioral science studies. "In the past, because they were afraid of things quantitative, older students came back to graduate work with great trepidation. They were hard to reach although they were more mature," Solomon said. "But she has had great success...so that the students got beyond math anxiety and went further to do their own research."

    Noting her contributions in education ranged from primary schools to graduate studies, Solomon said she has developed as a teacher of teachers. "She designs and uses her statistics in support of education in a variety of ways," he said. One example, the "Expanding Your Horizons" program, involved teaching 500 seventh-grade girls about science and mathematics done by women. Other activities include being the organizer of the Department of Statistics Summer Camp Program for high school students, being a member of the Scientist-Teacher Partnership (a volunteer program of NCSU and the Wake County Public School System), Chair of the Section on Statistical Education of the American Statistics Association in 1997, a presenter at STATS (Statistical Thinking and Active Teaching Strategies) workshops for mathematicians who teach statistics, and Chair of the Department of Statistics Seminar Series at NCSU.

    And because of her success in these areas, Dietz has been elected to NCSU's Academy of Outstanding Teachers (1985); received the D.D. Mason Faculty Award in recognition of teaching skills, innovation in statistics education and dedication to graduate students from other disciplines (1991); appointed Alumni Distinguished Professor for Undergraduate Teaching (1993-1995) and was a College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (PAMS) nominee for the Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching (1997, 1998). Dietz was made a Fellow of the American Statistical Association in 1996.

    But for Dietz, the real rewards have come from the students themselves. "Teaching is what excites me the most," she said. "Most of my recent teaching has been two-semester courses for social science graduate students who have jobs and families and are fearful about taking statistics. I like to alleviate their anxiety and convince them that they can do it and even enjoy it. I enjoy interacting with those students."

    Dietz added that she enjoyed the rapport she had with the graduate students, noting that she would rather see them relaxed and talking than herself just lecturing for an hour. "I think I've had some success. They don't leave my class loving it, but I think they leave with more confidence," she said.

    She added that she perceived part of her job in class as making the content seem relevant--something they will need to use. "I try to find examples of interest to them. I think the courses we teach now are more interesting and relevant than they were 15 years ago," she said, and added that it helped that there was less drudgery today in dealing with data computations so that students could talk about the interpretations instead of the mechanics.

    "It is so much easier to graph data," she added. "What we used to have to go through was unbelievable. It has made a huge change that we now have friendly computer packages. Teaching is more exciting and challenging now as we move away from hand computations toward using technology and computers and real data sets. There is more use of activities and projects in our courses, and students are more actively involved in their own learning."

    But Dietz is not content to leave it at that. She is eager to see the field of statistics gain more visibility and recognition. "Statisticians help solve problems in every academic field, and nearly all students can benefit from taking a statistics course. The Advanced Placement statistics course will help us recruit students, because more students will come to college already aware of the field of statistics. We need to sell our discipline and convince others of its importance," she said.

    Dietz, who started her own education with degrees in mathematics and psychobiology at Oberlin College, then did graduate work in biobehavioral sciences at the University of Connecticut and earned her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in statistics from the University of Connecticut, said she always wanted to do work that was relevant and helped the world solve real problems. With her research, innovative editing, and teaching skills, she has done just that.

    "I enjoy what I do," she said. "I can't imagine any other job I'd like better."

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    BEST CONTRIBUTED PAPER AWARD

    Ron Wasserstein
    Washburn University

    Newsletter for the Section on Statistical Education
    Volume 5, Number 1 (Winter 1999)


    Harry Norton is the winner of the 1998 Best Contributed Paper Award for the Statistical Education Section. Dr. Norton, who teaches at the Carolinas Medical Center, received the highest overall audience evaluation for his presentation entitled “Teaching Undergraduate Students and Medical Residents How to Identify Fallacies in Numerical Reasoning.” Those attending his session will not soon forget the lessons he taught and the unique rewards he provided his learners! A plaque recognizing his achievement will be presented at the Business Meeting of the Section in Baltimore next August.

    For many years, audiences at contributed paper sessions in the Statistics Education Section have been providing feedback to presenters. The goal of the evaluations and of the award is to encourage high quality contributed paper presentations.

    Thirty-nine papers were evaluated at the Anaheim meetings. To be eligible for the award, a paper must be evaluated by at least 15 people. The Section is grateful to the numerous audience members who took the time to fill out the evaluation form, and to the session chairs who distributed and collected the forms. Comments and suggestions about the evaluation and award process should be directed to Ron Wasserstein at the address below.

    Presenters receive a summary of the evaluations and comments for their session and some brief statistics for comparison.

    For further information, contact
    Ron Wasserstein
    Assistant Vice-President for Academic Affairs
    Washburn University
    Topeka KS 66621
    (785) 231-1010 ext. 1108
    zzwass@washburn.edu

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    JOURNAL OF STATISTICAL EDUCATION IS NOW ASA PUBLICATION

    Newsletter for the Section on Statistical Education
    Volume 5, Number 1 (Winter 1999)


    The Section on Statistical Education would like to congratulate the Journal of Statistics Education (JSE) on becoming an official journal of the American Statistical Association. The mission of JSE is to be a rigorously refereed scholarly journal that is distributed electronically to an international readership. The journal disseminates knowledge for the improvement of statistics education at all levels, including primary, secondary, post-secondary, postgraduate, continuing, and workplace education. It strives to have a broad focus and publishes manuscripts that enhance the exchange of a diversity of interesting and useful information among educators, practitioners, and researchers. Please see pages 2 to 3 of the December issue of Amstat News for more information on JSE.

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    AP STATISTICS, 1998

    Richard L. Scheaffer
    University of Florida

    Newsletter for the Section on Statistical Education
    Volume 5, Number 1 (Winter 1999)


    Overview of the 1998 Examination

    While only in its second year of operation, the AP Statistics program produced 15,200 operational exams and 250 alternate exams in 1998, double the number for 1997. The 1998 exam was of the same structure as the 1997 exam, with 35 multiple choice and six free-response questions. As in 1997, many students found the multiple choice questions to be relatively easy and the free response questions to be quite challenging. Student performances were roughly equivalent to those of 1997 on the equating multiple choice questions, but the average score on all multiple choice questions decreased in 1998. (The multiple choice questions were deemed too easy in 1997, and an attempt was made to make that section a little more difficult in 1998.) Even though the answers to the free-response questions are not at the level the Test Development Committee would like to see, they were somewhat better than last year in the sense that the mean score increased slightly, nearly doubling on the Investigative Task. The efforts by the Committee, the College Board and ETS to disseminate information on what is expected in answers to free- response questions appears to be having a positive effect, and these efforts should continue unabated. Statistical Summaries Table 1 shows the summary statistics for the raw scores for 1997 and 1998, based on a total of 50 points for each of the sections, multiple choice and free response. Notice that the standard deviations are large compared to the ranges of these scores.

    Table 1 Summary Statistics on Raw Scores for AP Statistics

    COMPOSITE OBJECTIVE FREE-RESPONSE
    MEDIAN
    1997
    1998

    47
    44

    31
    27

    15
    16
    MEAN
    1997
    1998

    46.8
    44.2

    30.4
    26.6

    16.5
    17.7
    SD
    1997
    1998

    18.9
    19.6

    10.4
    10.3

    9.6
    10.5

    Table 2 shows the results of the grade-setting process, turning the raw scores into an AP grade. The percentages in each of the five grade categories are similar to those of 1997, as are the cut points, but there is a slight decrease in the percentage of students receiving an AP grade of 5.

    Table 2 Grades, Boundary Scores and Percentages for AP Statistics

    Grade 1997 Minimum Score* 1997 Percentage of Students 1998 Minimum Score 1998 Percentage of Students
    5
    4
    3
    2
    1
    68
    54
    41
    29
    0
    15.7
    22.1
    24.4
    19.7
    18.0
    68
    53
    39
    28
    0
    13.5
    21.3
    24.6
    18.7
    21.9

    *Lowest composite score to qualify for that grade, out of 100 total points

    Table 3 provides the average composite score for students in each of the AP grade categories.

    Table 3 Mean Composite Score by AP Grade, 1998

    AP Grade Composite
    Score
    5
    4
    3
    2
    1
    75.52
    59.53
    45.39
    33.30
    17.77

    Conclusion

    It appears that AP Statistics has attracted the attention of teachers, students and the community of professional statisticians. Students with AP experience in statistics are beginning to show up in colleges and universities around the country. It would be interesting to see how well they perform in follow-up courses; the AP Statistics Development Committee would be happy to hear such reports from the college and university teachers of the next statistics course these students might take. If more information is desired on the AP Statistics exams themselves, Educational Testing Service (ETS) will be releasing a report, with sample student solutions, on the free-response questions for 1998 and the entire 1997 exam sometime by early 1999.

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    PAUL VELLEMAN RECEIVES THE 1998 EDUCOM MEDAL

    E. Jacquelin Dietz
    Department of Statistics
    North Carolina State University

    Newsletter for the Section on Statistical Education
    Volume 5, Number 1 (Winter 1999)


    Paul F. Velleman was honored at the Joint Statistical Meetings in Dallas as the 1998 Educom Medal Award winner for the American Statistical Association. A silver medal, a bronze desk statue, and a cash award were presented to Velleman on October 15, 1998, at the EDUCOM '98 annual conference in Orlando, Florida. More information about the Educom Medal Awards Program and the 1998 winners can be found at http://www.educause.edu/awards/medal/medalHome.html

    The Educom Medal Awards Program is designed to recognize contributors to innovative uses of technology in education. The ASA was chosen as one of five partner societies that each selected a medal winner for 1998. The Section on Statistical Education led the selection process for the ASA; selection committee members were Carol Blumberg, Jackie Dietz, Tom Moore, Bill Notz, Rosemary Roberts, and Allan Rossman.

    Velleman is the designer and author of ActivStats, a multimedia learning environment that provides a statistics course and supporting statistical software on a CD-ROM. In addition, Velleman is the designer and original developer of DataDesk, a statistics program for data exploration, graphics, and analysis that is widely used in teaching statistics. He is also the principal investigator and designer of the Data and Story Library (DASL, pronounced "dazzle"), a free on-line archive of over 120 datasets and stories about those data, designed for use in teaching.

    For further information, contact
    Jackie Dietz
    Department of Statistics
    Box 8203
    North Carolina State University
    Raleigh NC 27695-8203
    (919) 515-1929
    Fax: (919) 515-1909
    dietz@stat.ncsu.edu

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    INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH FORUM ON STATISTICAL REASONING, THINKING, AND LITERACY (SRTL)

    July 18-23, 1999
    Kibbutz Be’eri, Israel

    Newsletter for the Section on Statistical Education
    Volume 5, Number 1 (Winter 1999)


    The International Study Group for Research on Learning Probability and Statistics is offering the first in a series of International Research Forums, to be held in Israel in July 1999. Sponsored by the Weizmann Institute of Science and the University of Minnesota, this forum offers an opportunity for a small number of researchers from around the world to meet for a few days to share their work, discuss important issues, and initiate collaborative projects. The topic of the first forum will be Statistical Reasoning, Thinking, and Literacy. One outcome of the forum will be the publication of a monograph summarizing the work presented, discussions conducted, and issues emerging from this gathering. Background Research into statistical education has been growing and receiving increased attention in the past twenty years, which is illustrated by the large number of the papers presented at international conferences, articles published in statistics and educational journals, and even entire books devoted to a particular aspect of statistical education.

    The five International Conferences on Teaching Statistics (ICOTS), held every four years, beginning in 1982, helped to progressively link an informal research network of people interested in carrying out research on the teaching and learning of statistics at all age levels. It was at ICOTS I in 1982 that the International Study Group for Research on Learning Probability and Statistics was formed.

    The goal of the new study group was to encourage research in statistical education, promote the exchange of information between members, develop instruments by which concepts about probability and statistics could be assessed, and in general, improve the teaching and interpretation of probability and statistics by dissemination of research findings.

    Currently, the chair of the study group (Carmen Batanero, University of Granada, Spain) produces an electronic newsletter every three months to serve as a link between members and to provide information useful to research. It contains summaries of research papers written by members, information about members, summaries of recent dissertations, and other publications of interest, information concerning recent and forthcoming conferences, and Internet resources of interest. There are currently over 200 members representing close to 40 different countries.

    The only times members have been able to meet and share their work has been at the ICOTS conferences, every four years. However, in 1996, the IASE decided to focus a round table conference on research, and 24 members of the international research community had an opportunity to meet, share and discuss their work, and focus on the important topic of research on the role of technology in teaching and learning statistics. This meeting formed new collaborations, produced a high-quality, edited volume of papers (which is now on the web), and helped identify important issues and needed areas of research. This kind of productivity is only possible when small numbers of people meet together for several days to discuss research details in depth. Unfortunately, the ICOTS meetings do not allow this type of intense and in-depth discussion, allowing only for formal presentations of papers followed by general audience discussion.

    At the most recent meeting of ICOTS, held in June 1998 in Singapore, several papers focused on the related topics of Statistical Reasoning, Statistical Thinking, and Statistical Literacy. There seemed to be an overlap among the topics, yet important distinctions between them, none of which have as yet been addressed. It became apparent that when statistics educators or researchers talk about or assess statistical reasoning, thinking, or literacy, they may all be using different definitions and understandings of these cognitive processes. The similarities and differences among these processes are important to consider when formulating learning goals for students, designing instructional activities, and evaluating learning by using appropriate assessment instruments. In addition, in recent years, we have seen an increasing research emphasis on the socially and culturally situated nature of mathematical (statistical) activity. It suggests the importance of participation in the statistical practices established by the classroom community, in scaffolding the statistical reasoning processes of the individual student.

    A small, focused conference consisting of researchers interested in these topics appears to be an important next step in clarifying the issues, connecting researchers and their studies, and generating some common definitions, goals, and assessment procedures. Some of the questions to be discussed in the forum are:

    Organization

    Dani Ben-Zvi (Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel) and Joan Garfield (University of Minnesota, USA) are co-chairs of the International Research Forum. Assisted by Carmen Batanero (University of Granada, Spain, Chair of the International Study Group for Research on Learning Probability and Statistics) and an advisory committee, they will organize the program, invite participants, and edit the research monograph.

    The format of the Research Forum is for 12-15 participants to meet together for three two-hour sessions each day for three days, where most of the sessions will focus on the viewing and discussing of videotapes of students, illustrating statistical reasoning or thinking processes. Background papers by participants and others will be collected and distributed prior to the forum, including (1) theories of statistical thinking, reasoning and literacy, (2) details on recent research on these topics, and (3) descriptive information on the context of the videos to be viewed.

    All sessions will be held at Kibbutz Be’eri, which is in the southern part of Israel. Participants will arrive on Sunday, July 18. On that day there will be an orientation to the Kibbutz and a welcome reception. Meetings will take place on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. On Thursday, there will be a visit and tour of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, followed by a reception there. On Friday, participants may leave the Kibbutz to tour or travel to PME (Psychology in Mathematics Education). Participants will need to pay for their own travel to the Research Forum as well as their housing and meals at Kibbutz Be’eri. The estimated cost to participants for housing and meals at the Kibbutz will be about US$60 per day.

    The Research Forum organizers invite anyone interested in participating in this forum to contact them as soon as possible. Initial expressions of interest are invited as well as brief descriptions of relevant work to be shared at the forum.

    Dani Ben-Zvi, at ntdben@wiccmail.weizmann.ac.il and Joan Garfield, at jbg@tc.umn.edu

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    IASE ROUND TABLE CONFERENCE IN TOKYO, 2000

    Newsletter for the Section on Statistical Education
    Volume 5, Number 1 (Winter 1999)


    Since 1968, a number of Round Table Conferences have been organised on statistical educational topics, initially by the Education Committee of the International Statistical Institute and, since 1988, by IASE (the International Association for Statistical Education). It has been usual for these conferences to be held as satellite meetings to each ICME (International Congress on Mathematics Education).

    2000 will be the year of the IASE Round Table in Japan on the topic: Training Researchers in the Use of Statistics. This meeting will be held at the Meiji University, which is located in the central area of Tokyo, before or after the International Congress on Mathematics Education (ICME 9). The goal of the Round Table Conferences is to bring together a small number of experts, representing as many different countries as possible, to provide opportunities for developing better mutual understanding of common problems, and for making recommendations concerning the topic area under discussion. A main outcome is a monograph containing a set of refereed papers, which presents a global overview of the conference subject. The following are possible topics and issues to be discussed at the Round Table Conference:

    1. Statistical competencies that researchers in different disciplines should acquire in their postgraduate training
    2. Needs and problems in the statistical training of researchers in specific fields
    3. Main learning problems, misconceptions and errors concerning advanced statistical concepts and procedures
    4. Design/evaluation of courses for training researchers in statistical topics
    5. Effects of technology on the statistical training of researchers
    6. Assessing/ identifying frequent errors in the use of statistics by researchers
    7. Researchers' attitudes towards statistics and its effect on the role of data analysis in experimental research
    8. Consultation as a teaching/learning process
    9. Informal statistical learning from reading research literature.
    More information can be obtained from the web pages
    http://www.stat.ncsu.edu/info/iase/ and http://www.ugr.es/~batanero/iasert.htm or from

    Carmen Batanero
    Departamento Didáctica de la Matemática
    Facultad de Educación
    Campus de Cartuja, 18071
    Granada, Spain
    E-mail: batanero@goliat.ugr.es

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    ICOTS-5

    Brian Phillips, Chair IPC, ICOTS-5
    Swinburne University of Technology

    Newsletter for the Section on Statistical Education
    Volume 5, Number 1 (Winter 1999)


    In June, 1998 the Fifth International Conference on Teaching Statistics, ICOTS-5, was held over five days at Nanyang University of Technology, Singapore. The ICOTS conferences are one of the main activities of the IASE and are held every four years. Over 400 participants from some 40 countries attended and more than 200 papers were presented.

    One of the innovative aspects of the program was the incorporation of the conference theme, Expanding the Network, as a formal part of the program. The purpose was to establish special interest groups of people who met at the conference who wished to have ongoing communication. These networks were designed to keep each other informed of activities in the area, to share hard-to-find information with others in the group, and for general discussion and interchange of knowledge and ideas. Several groups were established and a number of internet list-servers have already been set up which have now started to operate. These can be found on the site http://www.stat.ncsu.edu/info/iase/

    The invited paper sessions included papers on statistical education at all levels including secondary, post secondary, continuing education in the workplace and in the wider society. The program also provided opportunities for participants to gain an international perspective, to learn about the roles of technology and research in statistical education as well as to have exposure to a number of other determinants and developments in statistical education.

    The three volume proceedings give the best continuing record of the conference, and are available for purchase from:
    CTMA Ltd
    425 Race Course Road
    Singapore 218671
    Tel: (65) 299 8992
    FAX: (65) 299 8983
    e-mail: ctmapl@singnet.com.sg

    The cost is: IASE/ISI Member $65 plus shipping/ handling. Non-member $80 plus shipping/handling (all prices are in Singapore dollars).

    Planning for ICOTS-6 which will be held in South Africa in 2002 has started. Anyone who would like to be involved in an organising role should contact Brian Phillips at: bphillips@swin.edu.au or keep an eye on the IASE site http://www.stat.ncsu.edu/info/iase/

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    TEN WEBSITES EVERY STATISTICS INSTRUCTOR SHOULD BOOKMARK

    Robin Lock
    St. Lawrence University

    Newsletter for the Section on Statistical Education
    Volume 5, Number 1 (Winter 1999)


    Academicians can generally invoke a lively discussion by posing the question "Which texts would you recommend for the bookshelves of any person in your field?" With the emergence of WWW resources, we can play a similar game with websites. Another version of the question is the proverbial "If you were stranded on a deserted island..." which we can now replace with "If your Internet provider only allowed you initial access to a small number of sites, which would you choose?" We will assume that you can follow links from your chosen sites to other places, indeed several of our favorite sites have relatively little content of their own, but are prized for their organization of links to other sites. To keep things focused, we will choose sites that are useful for teachers of statistics. URL's for the main site are given at the end of each description, although you can visit the page at http://it.stlawu.edu/~rlock/10sites.html to gain easy click access to any of the underlined sites.

    1. Journal of Statistics Education Information Service -contains links to several statistical education organizations (including the Section on Statistical Education of ASA), newsletters, discussion groups and, especially, the online Journal of Statistics Education (JSE) and the JSE Dataset Archive. Note: As of the beginning of 1999, the ASA has agreed to sponsor JSE so some features from these pages will be moving to the ASA's website. (http://www.stat.ncsu.edu/info/infopage.html )
    2. The CHANCE Project - has resources that emphasize using current news media as motivation for studying issues in probability and statistics. A highlight of this website is the monthly Chance News abstracting recent articles from newspapers and magazines with suggestions for pedagogical uses. (http://www.dartmouth.edu/~chance )
    3. DASL - The Dataset and Story Library - is a collection of datasets and related documentation (stories) that may be searched by data subjects or by statistical techniques. A great place to visit for class examples, this site is one of the web's premier sources of data intended for use in statistics instruction. (http://lib.stat.cmu.edu/DASL/ )
    4. JAVA Applets - has links to interesting online applets for demonstrating statistical concepts. Located at Duke University, the site has links to many other sites. The list of contributors at the bottom of the page is a who's who of people active in writing applets for supporting statistics instruction and good place to browse to find other applet sites. (http://www.stat.duke.edu/sites/java.html )
    5. Exploring Data - is an excellent collection of links and resources for teaching an introductory level course. Part online text, part online course materials, and all well presented by Rex Boggs at Glenmore HS in Rockhampton, Australia. (http://curriculum.qed.qld.gov.au/kla/eda/ )
    6. CTI Statistics Website - has an emphasis on the use of computers in teaching statistics and includes a rich set of reviews of statistical software from a teaching perspective. The Centre is associated with the Statistics Department at the University of Glasgow. (http://www.stats.gla.ac.uk/cti/ )
    7. Statistical Instruction Internet Palette (SIIP) - is a project devoted to developing web resources for teaching statistics. Directed by John Behrens at Arizona State University. This site includes one of the fullest and nicest collections of links to WWW data sources at Dr. B's Wide World of Web Data. (http://research.ed.asu.edu/siip/ )
    8. FEDSTATS - is billed as the "One-Stop Shopping" source for government data with links to more than 70 federal agencies. Be sure to try the A to Z link. (http://www.fedstats.gov/ )
    9. Statistics on the Web - has links to more general statistical resources on the web, with a good section related to teaching statistics. Put together by Clay Helberg at SPSS, Inc. (http://www.execpc.com/~helberg/statistics.html )
    10. WWW Resources for Teaching Statistics - outline from a talk at the 1998 Technology in Statistics Education Conference sponsored by the Boston Chapter of the ASA at Babson College. Contains all the links mentioned above and more. (http://it.stlawu.edu/~rlock/tise98/ )

    So, how many of these sites were already listed among your bookmarks? Of course, this is a subjective list, and the real fun of the game comes from the discussions about the great sites that were omitted. If you've got a website or two that you think should be included, send an email to rlock@vm.stlawu.edu and then check back at the 10sites page to see if additional sites have been added.

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    MARK YOUR CALENDAR

    Newsletter for the Section on Statistical Education
    Volume 5, Number 1 (Winter 1999)



    Information about the following Joint Statistical Meetings may be obtained from the ASA office:

    732 North Washington Street
    Alexandria, VA 22314-1943
    Phone: (703) 684-1221
    e-mail: meetings@amstat.org.

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    ATTENTION K-12 SCHOOL MEMBERS

    Newsletter for the Section on Statistical Education
    Volume 5, Number 1 (Winter 1999)


    At its last meeting the executive committee of the Section on Statistical Education decided to continue for another year to send the issues of the Section newsletter free to School Members of ASA. It is our hope that you find the information in this newsletter interesting.

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