Dex Whittinghill's Homepage!

Teachers of Statistics! This page is for you. Below you will find information on the

Isolated Statisticians,
MAA's SIGMAA on Statistics Education,
Mid-Atlantic Isolated Statisticians Meeting (MAISM),
and some links.

This page was last edited on January 21, 2006.

Isolated Statisticians. If you are an Isolated Statistician (generally the only statistician, or one of two, in a department of non-statisticians), and would like to get on the Isolated Statisticians list serve e-mail list, then you should e-mail Jeff Witmer of Oberlin College at jeff.witmer@oberlin.edu. The Isolated Statisticians meet every year at the Joint Statistical Meetings (JSMs), usually on Sunday night at about 7pm.

Information about the Isolated Statisticians and their annual Isolated Statisticians Meeting (ISM) at the JSMs, can be found at http://www.lawrence.edu/fast/jordanj/isostat.html. There are also some useful links there.

There have also been (a)periodic regional ISMs in several regions of the United States, with hopes for more in the future.

If you are an Isolated Teacher of Statistics (usually a non-statistician mathematician who is teaching most of the statistics in your department, or have been 'appointed' coordinator for statistics), and you have an interest in keeping up with the trends in statistics education, then you are strongly urged to join the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) and consider joining their Special Interest Group (SIGMAA) on Statistics Education. [Historical note: The Isolated Teachers of Statistics first met in January of 1998 Baltimore, and met again in San Antonio in January of 1999 and Washington, DC, in January of 2000. In Washington, DC, the Isolated Teachers of Statistics voted to disband and became ... .]

MAA's SIGMAA for Statistics Education. The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) now has had special interest groups for several years. It was in May 2000 that the MAA officially approved the creation of the SIGMAA on Statistics Education (the second SIGMAA). MAA members can join the SIGMAA at any time, and will be asked to renew their SIGMAA membership at the same time as their MAA membership. The SIGMAA on Statistics Education web page can be found here. (Be aware that this location will change soon, but you can also get to the web page via the MAA homage, 'MAA Online', at http://www.maa.org/ and choose 'Special Groups/SIGMAAs'.)

If you are an American Statistical Association (ASA) member, then join their Section on Statistics Education (http://www.amstat.org/sections/educ/), and the Isolated Statisticians referred to in the section above.

On May 24-26, 2000, the Third Mid-Atlantic Isolated Statisticians Meeting (MAISM3) was held at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA. Rowan University. The meeting loosely followed the format of the first New England Isolated Statisticians Meeting (NEISM) and MAISM2, running a day and a half from an opening dinner on Wednesday evening, to the closing session on Friday morning. Robin Lock of St. Lawrence U. was the opening, keynote speaker, sharing and discussing "Technological Toys for Teaching Statistics" in a spanking new computer classroom. The remaining discussions included syllabi, exams, use of technology in our statistics courses, what mathematics is needed for studying undergraduate statistics, sharing favorite web sites (many were Robin's finds!) and teaching activities (many new ones), how to add statistics courses in your department, and how to attract statisticians to positions in small math departments. There were also various announcements and reports, like the progress of the ASA's Undergraduate Statistics Education Initiative (USEI) and information on the USEI Symposium just before the 2000 JSMs. The turnout was a very satisfying 14, and pictures of the 'happy campers' can be found by clicking here. Thanks to the Exxon Education Foundation (now ExxonMobil Foundation) for their support.

Many participants planned to attend MAISM4, which had a target date of middle to late May, 2003, at Westminster College (new venue). That did not work out, and some of us will be investigating funding for MAISM4 in May (?) of 200x. If you have any questions about, or suggestions for, the next MAISM meeting (like funding sources!), or just wish to let me know that you would be interested in attending MAISM4, please e-mail me at the address below.

[Note: The first seven Regional Isolated Statisticians meetings were held in 1996, including the first MAISM. The picture of temporarily non-isolated statisticians shown on the right was taking at the inaugural New England Isolated Statisticians Meeting (or NEISM1), held that same year. See how happy the NEISMites were?! The NEISMs were the most successful, meeting for many years after 1996.]

Links to useful sources of information. Here are some 'quick' links for isolated statisticians and isolated teachers of statistics ('defined' above) who are a little farther behind the wave front of statistical education than I am.

The American Statistical Association (ASA) home page:

http://www.amstat.org/

The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) home page:: http://www.maa.org/

For web based sources of data, etc., I recommend starting with Robin Lock's home page at St. Lawrence University:: http://it.stlawu.edu/~rlock
This last link is to a list of links that I compiled in late February of 2011.: Lots of links

If you want to contact me about the above topics, or anything else, then you can contact me via e-mail at

whittinghill@rowan.edu

or via snail mail at: Dex Whittinghill; Department of Mathematics; Rowan University; 201 Mullica Hill Rd.; Glassboro, NJ, 08028, USA.

On the lighter side ... here is a piece of work from my one web page class: