|
Bay Area Chapter Inaugurates a Statistics Workshop for Bay Area AP Statistics Teachers and Volunteer Statistician visits to local Classrooms.
The American Statistical Association is actively involved in K-12 statistical education initiatives. For example, each year, the ASA organizes a "Beyond AP Statistics" and a "Meeting within a Meeting" for AP (Advanced Placement) teachers at the JSM. AP statistics is offered to 11th and 12th grade High School students. Students take an AP course and then take the AP exam in April. A high score on the exam may let the student get college credit. These Workshops help train teachers in Statistics needed for their AP (Advanced Placement) Statistics classes. Teachers need to arrange to travel to the JSM, and local chapters can provide funds for that travel. The ASA has encouraged local chapters to organize these courses and helps find expert lecturers.
This year, the Bay Area Chapter inaugurated a two day workshop for Bay Area AP Statistics teachers. The course was held August 11 and 12 at Carlmont High School in Belmont. Our ASA colleagues, Rebecca Nichols (ASA) and Michael Posner (Villanova) helped arrange for two well known professors, and AP statistics book authors to give the course - Allan Rossman and Beth Chance from Cal Poly. We had 15 AP Statistics teachers, from the Bay Area attend. Their feedback was unanimous and positive. The Chapter helped keep the registration to $50. The Chapter also provided teachers with a one year membership in the American Statistical Association. A picture of the teachers and lecturers here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisphotos/6033261481/
Pictures - AP Teachers Carlmont Workshop 2011
Bay Area Chapter K-12 Initiative
The teachers attended from High Schools around the Bay,and one teacher from as far as Turlock attended.
Statisticians Visiting Classrooms
Over the past year, our chapter also inaugurated having a local statistician-volunteer visit Bay Area AP statistics classes to give a one hour talk about statistics. Generally these visits occur at the end of the school year, after the High School students have taken the AP statistics exam.
We appreciate the volunteers and we visited three classes this year. In particular our Chapter thanks Carol Francisco and Doug Okamato for visiting two local High School AP statistics Classes, in San Mateo and Menlo Park. The initiative is described on the Chapter website. The feedback has been great, and we anticipate invitations for volunteers to return to the classroom
Our chapter plans to continue offering these courses and volunteer visits in coming years. We will have more details about the workshops in coming newsletters and chapter seminars.
We appreciate volunteers for these K-12 projects. Please email chris.barker@barkerstats.com or any chapter officer for details. http://www.sfasa.org/chapinfo.html
|