The Role of Undergraduate Mathematics for Statistics, and Vice Versa

• Activity Number: 352
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 14, 2002 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistical Education*
• Author(s): Robert Starbuck*+ and Deborah Hughes Hallett*+ and Allan Rossman*+ and Steven Horton*+ and Kay Somers*+
• Affiliation(s): Wyeth Research and University of Arizona and California Polytechnic State University and United States Military Academy and Moravian College
• Keywords: CRAFTY ; CUPM ; Undergraduate Curriculum ; Calculus Reform ; Statistics

Abstract

The MAA's Committee on Undergraduate Program in Mathematics (CUPM) is drafting a new set of curriculum recommendations for undergraduate mathematics. As part of this, the CRAFTY (Calculus Reform and the First Two Years) subcommittee held workshops for partner and client disciplines to get information about what other disciplines want from undergraduate mathematics. A group of statisticians and mathematicians met in October 2000 to address issues about the role of undergraduate mathematics in preparing students to study statistics and the role of statistics in the undergraduate mathematics curriculum. The group included representatives from industry and academia, and the academicians were from a wide variety of institutional types. The participants discussed a standard set of questions provided to the disciplines, asking what aspects of the undergraduate mathematics curriculum are of most value to that discipline. The second set of questions looked at what statistics can offer to the mathematics curriculum. The panelists will report on the results of the workshop, from viewpoints of small college, state university, military academy, industry, mathematician, and statistician.