Mrs. Overman's Math Class
Want to see the latest stats in the news?
Visit fivethirtyeight.com for the latest statistics in politics, sports, science & health, economics and culture.
See an interview with the founder of fivethiryeight.com, Nate Silver, discussing the major concepts and tools of statistics.
Why take Statistics?
Statistics is the science of learning from data. Statisticians design experiments and devise question to get data and then turn that data into knowledge in order to come to conclusions and make decisions. The video above from thisisstatistics.org shows why this is an important field of study.
Which college majors typically require statistics in college?
Statistics is used in nearly every field including but not limited to the sciences, engineering, business, medical, agricultural, social studies and the humanities. Click here to see some College Majors that require statistics.
Some of the most promising careers are in statistics. Among business jobs, statistics is considered #1 according to U.S. News & World Report. Of the best 25 jobs in 2017, statistician is #4. Statistics is the fastest growing stem major in U.S bachelor's degrees having increased 95% since 2010. Statistics is #8 on the list of highest-paying college majors with a median base salary of $60,000. How do we know this? We used statistics to prepare this data.
There was recently an interesting article about how the majority of STEM jobs are actually in computer science and data science. Data science actually incorporates statistics and computer science to analyze data. "Where the STEM jobs are and where they aren't", NY Times, 11/1/2017)
I am frequently available for tutoring outside of my scheduled hours. Feel free to stop by and/or schedule a time that works for both of us. I am unavailable on Monday mornings because of hallway duty. Friday mornings on B days, I will be busy with the National Mathematics Honors Society and unavailable for tutoring.
Tutorial Times Overman.pdfStatistics & Phones:
The impact of phones and technology in the classroom has been a statistical hot topic with numerous observational studies and experiments. Here are some interesting studies which support our class policy of keeping phones out of my sight and yours during instruction.
- "Dividing Attention in the classroom reduces exam performance", Arnold L. Glass & Mengxue Kang, July 2018: Even students who don't have their phones our are negatively impacted by the presence of other students' phones. Also see "The Myth of Multitasking".
- "Having your Smartphone Nearby Takes a Toll on Your Thinking", Kristen Duke, Adrian Ward, Ayelet Gneezy and Maarton Bos, March 2018. You can see a poster showing the effects on working memory and fluid intelligence outside of my classroom.
- "Digital Devices in the Classroom Can Hinder Long-Term Retention", Tina Nazerian, Aug 2018. Students who multitask with devices during class -- taking lecture notes while scrolling social media -- can process information in the moment but will struggle to retain that information long term, according to a study published in the journal Educational Psychology. The researchers also report lower exam performance and risk of distracting other students.
Statistics & Learning:
Here are some interesting articles about studies involving learning and education.
- "How Questions Help Students Learn", Youki Terada, August 2018. Guessing is useful for students' ability to recall information - even when the guesses are wrong.
- "DARPA Wants to Zap Your Brain to Boost Your Memory", Yasemin Saplakoglu, August 2018. Targeting the brain with well-timed electric shocks while subjects are asleep may give memory a boost, a study published in The Journal of Neuroscience suggests. Participants wore stimulation caps that monitored their brain activity and delivered zaps when the subjects' brains exhibited slow-wave oscillations, and their ability to find previously viewed hidden targets in new scenes improved, suggesting a memory boost.