Including a History of Statistics Course in Your Curriculum

• Activity Number: 143
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, August 10, 2015 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistical Education
• Author(s): Phyllis Curtiss* and Kirk Anderson
• Companies: Grand Valley State University and Grand Valley State University
• Keywords: History ; Curriculum ; Salsburg

Abstract

Do you have a course on the history of statistics in your curriculum? It is possible to combine "history" and "statistics" into one interesting course with a high level of student interest. At Grand Valley State University, we offer a one-credit course that is centered on David Salsburg's book "The Lady Tasting Tea: How Statistics Revolutionized Science in the 20th Century." The course has been offered eight times since 2005, including every winter semester in the last five years. A discussion of the format used for instruction will be included in an attempt to convince others to develop a course at their school. We will share ideas on how to use Salsburg's book in order to get the students engaged and curious to find out more. We will also mention some of the inconsistencies in Salsburg's book and how we manage them in our course. Feedback from past students that have taken the course will also be included.