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

[Christopher W Ryan]

 I think R is an outstanding tool for high schoolers.  Might as well
teach good data habits from the get-go, rather than spend the first
two (or more) years of college un-teaching bad ones.

Back around 2013, I taught two 5-hour R workshops to students in a
longitudinal science research class at Rondout Valley High Shool in
New York State. R-help and R-sig-teaching archives contain the
preliminary conversations leading up to my workshops, my experiences
doing them, and some post-workshop feedback from the students and
their teacher. [search archives for "teaching R high school" or
similar.]  Or by my email address. All in all, I'd say it was very
successful. The students started a computer programming club
afterward, and several have gone on to college in various STEM and
programming fields.

If there is going to be more discussion about this, I'm in.

--Chris Ryan
SUNY Upstate Medical University
Binghamton University
Broome County Health Department

On Tue, May 17, 2016 at 6:01 PM, Mark Daniel Ward <mdw at purdue.edu> wrote:
> Dear Brian,
>
> I firmly agree with you.  Indeed, I'm working with some colleagues at the
> ASA (American Statistical Association) on trying to really broaden the
> groups that are impacted by the use of R and data science, far beyond the
> usually K-12 contact with statistics.
>
> Perhaps we don't have to bother everyone with such discussions. I wonder if
> interested parties would like to have a sub-discussion about this with my
> colleagues at the ASA?  I'm actually trying to build some momentum in these
> very areas.  Would you like to (directly) discuss further?  I've been
> working on an initiative in this vein lately.
>
> P.S.  I see that you are a professor of wildlife and statistics. Although
> I'm in a statistics department, we have several students working on projects
> related to forestry and natural resources at Purdue.
>
> Mark
>
> Mark Daniel Ward, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor and Undergraduate Chair
> Department of Statistics
> Purdue University
> 150 North University Street
> West Lafayette, IN 47907-2067
> mdw at purdue.edu
> phone: (765) 496-9563
>
>
>
> On 5/17/16 5:45 PM, Brian Dennis wrote:
>>
>> 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
>>
>>         [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>>
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