MathEd Coursepack for Statistical Methods

Stephanie Casey and Andrew M. Ross
Mathematics Dept., Eastern Michigan University

"I'm teaching a statistics class in 14 days--what do I do?" We have heard this multiple times from alumni who call back to ask for help on stats, wishing they hadn't sold back their stats textbook!
Many students who will become high school math teachers take a statistics class aimed at non-teaching math and science majors. This coursepack is to help pre-service teachers think about how they will need to teach stats in their classrooms.
Some other schools have a course specifically for teachers. You can find many of these by doing an internet search for "statistics for teachers" (including the quotes), for example, or any similar search.

Standards, Reports, Etc.

Statistics Education Journals

Good news! The main journals on statistics education are freely available online. You should consider subscribing to their email updates. You should also consider subscribing to the AP Statistics email list (and AP Calculus, too; same link). You can also read through the email archive.

Statistics Education Conferences

Here are some conferences; it is often helpful to read through their lists of talks to get new ideas for teaching. Also, consider joining some of those professional societies to learn more about the profession you are entering. Student memberships are often somewhat cheap (under $50/year?) and it looks good on your resume!

Data Sources

Fun Stats Reading

Here are some blogs that focus on the teaching of statistics: I found them by searching for: blogs on teaching statistics. You should probably try that search for yourself, in case any new good ones have popped up.
These blogs are a good source of examples, but are not particularly focused on teaching methods: Common AP Stats textbooks: There are also study guides for AP Stats by the usual AP study guide companies (for example, Barron's and Princeton Review). Books on research on stats-ed, or ideas on teaching stats:

Things to KNOW

Note sheets are great, but sometimes you just need to know things without looking them up, especially when you are in front of a class. Here are some of them: And, things to know on your calculator:

Association/Correlation Unit

During the Winter 2012 semester, we did a study about methods of teaching the association/correlation unit. One section of the Statistical Methods class was the "treatment" section, and they received the new curriculum materials we wrote. Here are some of the plans and assignments from the study.

Other Stats Places

These aren't particularly related to being a stats teacher, but are helpful as you learn statistics for yourself, or as resources for your future students.

Software

You can find many lists of statistical software with your favorite search engine. Here are some that are designed for educational purposes: Prof. Ross uses Excel when teaching statistics, even though there are some known bugs and inaccurate documentation. His opinion is that the skills gained in Excel in his class outweigh the bugs. For more about the bugs, see here, here, here, and here.