Catch 'Em While They're Young: Statistics as a First-Year Seminar

• Activity Number: 290
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Tuesday, July 31, 2012 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistical Education
• Author(s): Michele DiPietro*+ and Johanna S Hardin*+ and Russell V Lenth*+ and Brenda Gunderson*+
• Companies: Kennesaw State University and Pomona College and University of Iowa and University of Michigan
• Keywords: statistics education ; first-year students ; seminar ; undergraduate ; first-year seminar ; education

Abstract

First-year seminars are growing on campuses across the United States. Do many people think about using statistics as the theme around which such courses are based? If Hal Varian of Google says "the sexy job in the next 10 years will be statisticians," shouldn't we try? Such first-year seminars avail us the chance to get students interested in statistics and perhaps grow future statisticians (or at least develop informed consumers of statistics). In this session, three panelists talk about their first-year seminars, including the challenges and rewards of offering such seminars. They will address how we can catch students new to our schools and tempt them with statistics. Our discussant will bring all of this together and provide sage advice for those of us who want to propose our own first-year seminars in statistics.