Using Sports Analytics to Inspire Student Interest in Statistics and Storytelling with Data

• Activity Number: 339 - Using Sports Analytics to Inspire Student Interest in Statistics and Storytelling with Data
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Thursday, August 12, 2021 : 10:00 AM to 11:50 AM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistics in Sports
• Author(s): Michael Schuckers* and Rebecca Nugent* and Asmae Toumi* and Tim Swartz*
• Companies: St. Lawrence University and Carnegie Mellon University and hockey-graphs.com and Simon Fraser University
• Keywords: sports; analytics; statistics education; storytelling; diversity

Abstract

Sports analytics is particularly well-suited for use in education because of the availability of data, the pre-existing knowledge of sports among students, and the ease with which it can be used to promote data literacy. The numerous sources of publicly available data makes solving real-world problems an option that is not available in many other fields. Since many students are familiar with the rules and strategies in sports, they have the subject-matter expertise necessary to more easily understand how to appropriately solve these problems, an expertise that is often not prevalent or even possible in other fields of study. This expertise also makes sports analytics examples great options for non-technical introductions to statistical reasoning. The panelists will discuss using sports analytics for creating course content, promoting data literacy, formulating undergraduate and graduate student research problems, organizing conferences, developing summer programs, conducting workshops and seminars, coordinating mentorship programs, and reaching out to underrepresented populations.