Nine faculty members from Elon’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics attended and presented at the 11th United States Conference on Teaching Statistics (USCOTS).
Nine faculty members from Elon’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics —Andi Metts, Heather Barker, Keta Henderson, Kirstie Doehler, Larry Cantwell, Laura Taylor, Mark Weaver, Nicholas Bussberg, and Ryne VanKrevelen — traveled to Ames, Iowa, July 15–19 to attend and present at the 11th United States Conference on Teaching Statistics (USCOTS).
This year’s conference theme, “Useful Models,” encouraged educators to explore ways to make statistics instruction more meaningful, relevant, and impactful for students. Throughout the week, Elon faculty joined keynote talks, breakout sessions, poster sessions and informal discussions while also sharing their own innovative teaching practices.
Elon faculty presentations and sessions included:
- Heather Barker and Larry Cantwell co-led a full-day workshop, “Empowering Students Through Data: Teaching Socially Relevant Statistics with CODAP,” alongside Bridget Druken of California State Fullerton and Tim Erickson, co-creator of CODAP. The team introduced instructors to the Common Online Data Analysis Platform (CODAP) and guided participants in designing classroom tasks using socially relevant datasets to help students connect statistical learning to social justice issues.
- Kirsten Doehler and Heather Barker presented a poster, “A Statistics Lab Analyzing Civil War Data to Foster DEI and Social Justice Discussions.” Their work showcased a statistics lab using data on Confederate symbols from the Southern Poverty Law Center, helping students practice data analysis while engaging with historical and current social issues.
- Ryne VanKrevelen, Laura Taylor, Nicholas Bussberg and Mark Weaver shared a poster, “Insights from Two Years of Implementing an Innovative, Experience-Based Statistics Graduation Requirement.” Their presentation detailed Elon’s new senior evaluation process for statistics majors, which allows students to complete a variety of professional and academic experiences to meet graduation requirements while enhancing their resumes.
- Nicholas Bussberg, Ryne VanKrevelen and Heather Barker facilitated a breakout session, “Exploring Alternative Grading Models for Teaching Statistics,” where they shared their experiences with ungrading, specifications grading and other nontraditional assessment methods. Participants reflected on their own grading practices and left with concrete ideas and resources.
- Nicholas Bussberg hosted a “Birds of a Feather” lunchtime discussion, “Sustainability and Stats,” where participants explored how to integrate sustainability and climate change topics into statistics and data science courses beyond simple examples, prompting richer student engagement.
The conference gave Elon faculty the chance to connect with peers nationwide, exchange ideas and bring back fresh strategies to further strengthen the department’s teaching and student engagement.
-
Heather Barker
Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Statistics
-
Nicholas Bussberg
Assistant Professor of Statistics
-
Larry Cantwell
Assistant Teaching Professor of Mathematics and Statistics
-
Keta Henderson
Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics & Statistics
-
Kirstie Doehler
Professor of Statistics
-
Andrea Metts
Assistant Teaching Professor of Mathematics and Statistics
-
Laura Taylor
Professor of Statistics
-
Ryne VanKrevelen
Associate Teaching Professor of Statistics
-
Mark Weaver
Associate Professor of Statistics