[R-sig-teaching] Teaching R in high school and college science and math courses
Nick Carchedi
nick at datacamp.com
Thu May 19 17:27:40 CEST 2016
Dear fellow R fanatics:
Thanks to all of you for posting on this topic, especially to Brian
Dennis for kicking things off. Teaching R and stats to young people is
something that is near and dear to my heart and I've been giving it a
great deal of thought over the past 6 months. My company (DataCamp)
and I are very interested in being part of the discussion and part of
the solution.
I'll focus on AP Statistics for a moment, since for young people in
the US, it's often the first (and unfortunately for many, their last)
encounter with a traditional intro stats curriculum. From talking with
people closer to the matter than I am, I've gathered that there are
two primary constraints on the current AP Statistics curriculum:
1. Lack of (uniform) access to modern computational tools (e.g. R)
2. Lack of sufficient knowledge/training among high school teachers
The practical reality is that, given these constraints, the AP
Statistics curriculum cannot not optimized purely for its didactic
value to students, but rather to be 1) compatible with the
capabilities of a graphing calculator and 2) teachable by someone
without any formal training in statistics or programming.
This is not in any way intended to be a knock on the folks who have
taken on the challenge of designing the curriculum or the amazing
teachers on the front lines of public school education in the US. They
are doing the best they can given the circumstances. But it does seem
to me that both of the constraints above are solvable given the right
strategy, resources, and time.
Let's please keep this discussion going. If anyone disagrees with my
assessment, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Even better, I hope we can
begin discussing potential solutions. I have a few in mind :)
Sincerely,
Nick
--
Nick Carchedi
Director of Course Development | DataCamp
Skype: ncarchedi | Mobile: 617-775-9373
> Message: 14
> Date: Tue, 17 May 2016 18:01:57 -0400
> From: Mark Daniel Ward <mdw at purdue.edu>
> To: Brian Dennis <dr.of.chaos at gmail.com>, r-sig-teaching at r-project.org
> Subject: Re: [R-sig-teaching] Teaching R in high school and college
> science and math courses
> Message-ID: <2c26d5ad-b393-e5f3-c80e-d37e3cf1a8ef at purdue.edu>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
>
> 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
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 15
> Date: Tue, 17 May 2016 18:17:50 -0400
> From: User Hayden <bob at statland.org>
> To: R-sig-teaching <r-sig-teaching at r-project.org>
> Subject: [R-sig-teaching] [dr.of.chaos at gmail.com: Teaching R in high
> school and college science and math courses]
> Message-ID: <20160517221750.GA50218 at lilly.csoft.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
>
>
> I applaud your goals and what I can see on Amazon looks good. In
> addition to inertia and addiction to graphing calculators, high shcool
> teachers (I've worked with them in AP Stats. for 20 years or so) are
> concerned about access and equity. Students can take the TIs
> anywhere. There is no guarantee that students will have a suitable
> computer or Internet access at home. Many high schools have very
> limited computer labs but the TIs can be used in a regular classroom.
> My counter to all that is that you can run R on computers people are
> paying the recycling center to haul away. But there is no organized
> effort to make use of that resource. In addition to gathering up the
> computers, one needs to find spaces to put them in.
>
> Years ago I made a scientific version of Puppy Linux that included R
> and lots of other math. software. That meant your recycling center
> computer did not have to have a working/legal OS. Or even a working
> hard drive!
>
> I posted a link to your book on Amazon in the AP Statistics
> Community. There is a small but growing number of R users there.
>
>
> ----- Forwarded message from Brian Dennis <dr.of.chaos at gmail.com> -----
>
> Date: Tue, 17 May 2016 14:45:30 -0700
> From: Brian Dennis <dr.of.chaos at gmail.com>
> To: r-sig-teaching at r-project.org
> Subject: [R-sig-teaching] Teaching R in high school and college science and
> math courses
>
> 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]]
>
> _______________________________________________
> R-sig-teaching at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-teaching
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----
>
> --
>
> -------> First-time AP Stats. teacher? Help is on the way! See
> http://courses.ncssm.edu/math/Stat_Inst/Stats2007/Bob%20Hayden/Relief.html
> _
> | | Robert W. Hayden
> | | 614 Nashua Street #119
> / | Milford, New Hampshire 03055 USA
> | |
> | | email: bob@ the site below
> / x | website: http://statland.org
> | /
> ''''''
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 16
> Date: Tue, 17 May 2016 18:23:13 -0400
> From: User Hayden <bob at statland.org>
> To: R-sig-teaching <r-sig-teaching at r-project.org>
> Subject: [R-sig-teaching] [mdw at purdue.edu: Re: Teaching R in high
> school and college science and math courses]
> Message-ID: <20160517222313.GB50218 at lilly.csoft.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
>
> I would be very interested in being involved. I am an ASA member. I
> think the AP Stats. teachers already using R would be terrific
> resources. I am not sure we need to start a new list -- there is
> little traffic on this one, and most of it is off-topic. This is
> actually about using R to teach statistics!
>
>
> ----- Forwarded message from Mark Daniel Ward <mdw at purdue.edu> -----
>
> Date: Tue, 17 May 2016 18:01:57 -0400
> From: Mark Daniel Ward <mdw at purdue.edu>
> To: Brian Dennis <dr.of.chaos at gmail.com>, r-sig-teaching at r-project.org
> Subject: Re: [R-sig-teaching] Teaching R in high school and college science
> and
> math courses
> User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.11; rv:45.0)
> Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/45.0
>
> 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
>
>
>
> Message: 17
> Date: Wed, 18 May 2016 08:55:38 +0200
> From: Martin Maechler <maechler at stat.math.ethz.ch>
> To: User Hayden <bob at statland.org>
> Cc: R-sig-teaching <r-sig-teaching at r-project.org>
> Subject: Re: [R-sig-teaching] Teaching R in high school and college
> science and math courses
> Message-ID: <22332.4586.814782.827451 at stat.math.ethz.ch>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
>
> Dear colleagues,
>
> As an R Core member (who does a little of volunteering for
> school childern - mostly below high-school though)
> I've always dreamed of R entering the (upper) high-school level.
>
> I agree that R-SIG-Teaching is an appropriate place to keep this
> topic going. To us non-Americans, can you explain "AP
> Statistics" to us and possibly use URLs when you mention
> websites?
>
> One remark about TI's: They are still the thing now, but in
> some places, including some here in Switzerland, schools now
> start using tablets in the class room. I'm sure that something
> close to tablets / smartphones / (their successor) will be what
> future school kids will be using.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Martin Maechler
> ETH Zurich (and R Core Team)
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 18
> Date: Tue, 17 May 2016 23:13:07 -0400
> From: Christopher W Ryan <cryan at binghamton.edu>
> To: R-sig-teaching at r-project.org
> Subject: Re: [R-sig-teaching] Teaching R in high school and college
> science and math courses
> Message-ID:
> <CAM+rpYkW+frze61KjvUO7MO9=OuAG2rnST+f10j0cjm7kC5hYA at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
> 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
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