Statistics Course

[choirfarm]

This was a course that interested my son looking at the Teaching Company offerings. When he did his career exploration course last year, it is also one of the fields he was most interested in. So here is what I have come up with for next year. Any thoughts?

 

AP Statistics Course

DVD Lectures: Meaning from Data: Statistics Made Clear by Michael Starbird

Books- recommended by the course

Textbook: Statistics: Concepts and Controversies 5th edition by David S Moore

A Cartoon Guide to Statistics by Gonick, Larry and Woolcott Smith

Full House: The Spread of Excelence from Plato to Darwin by Stephen Gould

How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis

The Lady Tasting Tea: How Statistics Revolutionized Science in the Twentieth Century by David Salsburg

Books I am considering

Baron’s How to Prepare for AP Statistics 3rd Edition

Statistics: Concepts and Controversies Laboratory and Activities Supplement (This goes with the textbook. However, I may not need it with the online tutorial and AP exam books

My son LOVES most sports and has pages and pages of his own stat sheets. I thought he might enjoy these books about using stats in sports:

Statistical Thinking in Sports by Jim Albert

Anthologies of Statistics in Sports by Bennet, Cochran and Albert

Scientific Football 2008 by KC Joyner

Here is an online tutorial to prepare for the AP Exam

http://stattrek.com/AP-Statistics-1/AP-Statistics-Intro.aspx?Tutorial=ap

[LoriM]

It looks like a good assortment from conceptual to problem-solving. I *love* The Lady Tasting Tea--it reads like a novel! :)

 

My younger dd is taking Intro Stats at the CC right now, and doesn't love it (LOL) and my older dd is taking Math Stat II at the university in her last semester of college, and is having a MISERABLE experience with an incompetent professor. It's really too bad, because she enjoyed Math Stat I, and has a 4.0 GPA after 114 semester hours....and will probably NOT make an A in this class. Sigh. It's tough on me...the family statistician.

 

Anyway, I think you've probably overthought the course (grin) with more than he'd be asked to do in a classroom setting. If he loves it, then require it all. If it turns out not to be his favorite, then feel free to wean it down to the computational stuff that will show up on the AP exam...it would still be more than sufficient.

 

Lori

[Sunshine State Sue]

I'm no help but thought you might find these interesting:

For Today’s Graduate, Just One Word: Statistics

 

Doing the Math to Find the Good Jobs

[choirfarm]

Hi Lori,

 

I wasn't sure about all of the books and whether to have him read them or not. I thought he may find them interesting. The highest I ever got in math was trig and we didn't have any graphic calculators. So he will do this all on his own. The DVD will get here on Saturday, so I'll look at it. So, would this be a year long course or a semester?? I was hoping he might do some kind of computer programing course next year, but it may not fit. As it is he would be doing: Chalkdust Alg II, Apologia Physics, Sos Spanish II ( actually probably finishing I and starting II), TOG year 4 for history, church history and literature as well as this Statistics course. That's pretty heavy for a 10th grader.

 

Sue,

 

Interesting articles. I'll show them to my son.

 

Christine

[KAR120C]

I was hoping he might do some kind of computer programing course next year, but it may not fit.

One thing you might consider, if a separate programming course is too much, is that in learning the graphing calculator and statistics there are a lot of possibilities for fairly straightforward programming with statistics functions on the graphing calculator. There might be a graphing calculator guide that goes with the main textbook. We used a differnt Moore title that had a whole slew of accompanying materials, including graphing calculator, SAS, Minitab, Excel.... Lots of possibilities for extending the statistics work into a little programming work. Not a full programming course by itself, but maybe a good compromise!

 

I just reserved a copy of Lady Tasting Tea at Barnes & Noble to pick up this afternoon -- I'd never heard of it but it looks fabulous! :)

[LoriM]

Hi Lori,

 

I wasn't sure about all of the books and whether to have him read them or not. I thought he may find them interesting. The highest I ever got in math was trig and we didn't have any graphic calculators. So he will do this all on his own. The DVD will get here on Saturday, so I'll look at it. So, would this be a year long course or a semester?? I was hoping he might do some kind of computer programing course next year, but it may not fit. As it is he would be doing: Chalkdust Alg II, Apologia Physics, Sos Spanish II ( actually probably finishing I and starting II), TOG year 4 for history, church history and literature as well as this Statistics course. That's pretty heavy for a 10th grader.

 

 

 

You might think about adding the "Tinkerplots" or "Fathom" software to your purchases. You can get the package for $60 or so, and it's such a neat program. Tinkerplots is designed for elementary students, while Fathom is used with middle/high school, but there is much to be learned from both pieces of software. Then, even if he doesn't get to programming languages, at least he'll get some computer tech analysis stuff mixed in with his study. You can spend as long or as short a time as you are willing to give to statistics. :) (I spent 5 years, after all...) A decent AP course will probably be a year, unless he falls in love with stats and finishes the material rapidly.