[R-sig-teaching] Teaching R in high school and college science and math courses

[Brian Dennis]

Hi fellow R-philes,

My contention is that R is not just for statistics.  Rather, R can be used
in math and science classes in colleges, community colleges, and even high
schools, to replace most uses of graphing calculators and proprietary
spreadsheets.

Various aspects of R seem to have immense potential for helping STEM
(science, technology, engineering, math) education:

(1) With R, scientific calculations and graphs are fun and easy to produce.
A student using R can focus on the scientific and mathematical concepts
without having to pore through a manual of daunting calculator keystroke
instructions. The students would be analyzing data and depicting equations
just as scientists are doing in labs all over the world.

(2) R could be learned once and used across a wide variety of STEM courses,
promoting the integration of STEM subjects that has been much discussed in
principle but elusive in practice.

(3) R is now probably the most universally available computational tool
(aside from counting on fingers). Many students access a computer to use
social media, and most schools and colleges have institutional machines (of
varying quality) available to the students. Versions of R exist for most
platforms (going back 10 years or more), so R could be made instantly
available to every student in every course.

(4) R invites collaboration. Students can work in groups to conduct
projects in R, build R scripts, and improve each others’ work. Results on a
computer screen are easier to view in groups than on a calculator. At home,
students can work cooperatively online with R. Every new class can build
new accomplishments upon those of previous classes. R builds on itself.

(5) R skills follow a student to college and professional life. College
statistics and advanced science courses are increasingly teaching R. R
skills are a becoming a valuable professional credential in sci-tech, data
analytic, and finance firms.

(6) R tutorial websites and videos for beginners are now widespread and
free.

I have taught R as a guest teacher in 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th grades
(& am a university statistician/scientist by profession).  The kids love it
and take to it with gusto.  R seems to them like a real important thing
when they produce, all by themselves, beautiful graphs of important
concepts.

Toward the goal of popularizing R as a general product for scientific
graphs and calculations, I wrote a book, "The R Student Companion".  It is
an inexpensive paperback modeled in a "lab manual" format.  Naturally, so
many free instructional resources are available for R that instructors can
bring R into courses without needing extra books.  However, my book is
targeted at a high school level audience, having just a little algebra, and
it contains real, compelling scientific examples and computational
exercises and projects.  The value-added convenience, and the fact that the
book ports across many courses, seem to me to make the book a bargain.

Publisher website here:
https://www.crcpress.com/The-R-Student-Companion/Dennis/p/book/9781439875407

Amazon here:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Student-Companion-Brian-Dennis/dp/1439875405

Read reviews here:
http://webpages.uidaho.edu/~brian/reviews_of_RSC.pdf

Readin', Rritin', Rithmetic, and R!

Enjoy!

Brian Dennis
Professor of Wildlife and Statistics
University of Idaho

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