USCOTS 2007
Deb Rumsey, USCOTS Program Chair

Time to Plan for USCOTS 07!

The second United States Conference on Teaching Statistics (USCOTS 07) will be held on May 17-19, 2007 at the Blackwell Hotel and Pfahl Conference Center at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. USCOTS is hosted by CAUSE, the Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education.

The theme of USCOTS 07 is "Statistics Teaching to the Next Level." Specific topics include taking your statistics course up a notch; moving past the intro course to the second course; designing a statistics minor or major; taking student learning to the next level; using the latest technology to enhance teaching and learning; and implementing the GAISE guidelines (ASA endorsed Guidelines for Assessment of Instruction in Statistics Education.)

USCOTS 07 is a 'hands-on' conference with plenary sessions from leaders in statistics education, working breakout sessions, interactive idea exchange forums, and plenty of opportunities to meet and share ideas with other statistics teachers from all disciplines and types of institutions (including high school and AP statistics teachers.) Our plenary speakers will be Jessica Utts, Allan Rossman, Dick DeVeaux, Paul Velleman, and Mike Shaughnessy.

We hope that you as well as other interested members of your department will join us for USCOTS 07 to find out ways to take statistics teaching to the next level! If the USCOTS flyer (www.CAUSEweb.org/uscots/flyer.pdf) is not already on your department bulletin board, then please help us spread the word by printing it off and posting it. Thanks in advance for your help with this.

To register for USCOTS 07, visit the website at www.causeweb.org/uscots. For more information, contact Deb Rumsey, USCOTS 07 Program Chair, at rumsey@stat.osu.edu.

USCOTS 2007 Call for Contributors

We are calling for proposals for the Idea Exchange Forum (formerly known as the spotlight sessions) for USCOTS. This forum provides an opportunity for conference participants to display, demonstrate, present, and discuss their favorite examples, activities, methods, and ideas. Due to limited space, the Idea Exchange Forum will be limited to 80 presenters. Abstracts submitted before February 1st will receive feedback from the session organizers by March 1st. Final abstracts should be submitted by April 1, 2007. Abstracts submitted between February 1 and April 1, 2007 will be considered for selection, but will not receive feedback from the session organizers. All applicants will be notified whether they were selected by April 17th.

Apply to take part in a cluster group when you register for USCOTS

Special Interest clusters of 10-20 individuals with common interests and goals in statistics education will be formed prior to USCOTS. A cluster convener will organize and facilitate 3 meetings during USCOTS to access needs, discuss session activities, and form a plan for collaborative work. After USCOTS each cluster will work on this plan and also develop an electronic handbook to guide new and continuing cluster members. Some support from CAUSE will be available to help facilitate these activities. Examples of cluster groups will include those focused on selected aspects of the intro course, the second course, statistics education research (see below), graduate students, and the AP class. You can apply for cluster group membership when you register and will then be contacted by the convener with more details about the selection process and the responsibilities of group membership.

Looking Ahead

Two pre-conference workshops will be offered in connection with USCOTS 2007. One will focus on Teaching Introductory Statistics and the other on the Post-Introductory Course. We have an exciting line-up to lead these workshops. Get more for your travel money, come early to USCOTS and attend one of these workshops. Workshop details and registration information will be provided in the next E-News and on our website in the near future.

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CAUSE UPDATE
(Dennis Pearl)

CAUSE and IASE to deliver statistics texts to developing countries

CAUSE is teaming with private publishers and the International Association for Statistics Education (IASE) to provide statistics textbooks to schools in developing countries. Under the program, publishers donate new texts that are being replaced by a new edition. CAUSE and IASE work to match appropriate texts and schools. The first schools to benefit from this program will be based on the recommendations of the Education Committee of the South African Statistics Association.

Next CAUSE Webinar is October 10

CAUSE has now successfully hosted nine Webinars since we began this exciting new activity in January. A Webinar is a web-based seminar where participants watch presentations on their computer while joining in the conversation via phone and by sharing the work on their own screen. CAUSE hosts Webinars on the second Tuesday of each month. There is no cost to participate, but we do ask that you register. You will need internet access and a telephone. CAUSE covers the cost of the connections through the ReadyTalk conferencing system.

The next Webinar, on October 10th from 2:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. EDT, will feature John Holcomb, Jr. from Cleveland State University who will present "Writing and Data Analysis Projects for Introductory Statistics". This webinar will present a quick overview of assessment methods related to student writing assignments and data analysis projects. Beginning with short writing assignments, we will progress through a range of different approaches to projects at the introductory course level. On-line resources containing existing project ideas will be shown along with ideas for creating one's own projects. We will also discuss several approaches to evaluating the range of assignments.

You can sign-up for this free activity and find recordings of our previous Webinars at www.causeweb.org/webinar.

For more information on webinars and other CAUSE activities, contact Dennis Pearl at dkp@stat.osu.edu.

Announcing the First Undergraduate Statistics Project Competition (USPROC)
Carl Lee

CAUSE gladly announces its first biennial undergraduate statistics project competition (USPROC). The purpose of USPROC is to encourage the development of data analysis skills, to enhance presentation skills, and to recognize outstanding work by undergraduate statistics students. The top three projects will earn monetary awards of $750 for the first place, $500 for the second place and $250 for the third place. The next three projects will receive honorable mention. The top three projects will be invited to present their project at the United States Conference on Teaching Statistics (USCOTS), May 17-19, 2007, in Columbus, Ohio, with travel expenses covered for representatives of the winning groups.

The competition is open to any undergraduate student. The project must involve statistical applications using real data. Students may work individually or in groups of up to 3 persons. Each student can be the author or a co-author of only one project. Each project must have an instructor sponsor.

The project must be submitted through email as an attachment to carl.lee@cmich.edu . Deadline for submission is January 29, 2007 and announcement of winners is March 2nd.

The detailed Guideline and materials for submission are posted at www.causeweb.org/usproc.php. For questions regarding the competition, please contact Carl Lee by e-mail (carl.lee@cmich.edu) or by phone: (989) 774-3555

Summer Workshops - Very Successful!

Thanks to the National Science Foundation, CAUSE hosted two summer workshops.

The four day workshop on Teaching Introductory Statistics was held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the Medical College of Wisconsin. This workshop was led by Roger Woodard (North Carolina State University), Ginger Rowell (Middle Tennessee State University) and Bob delMas (University of Minnesota). The participants actively engaged in discussions and many hands-on activities demonstrating current ideas in teaching and ways to improve the introductory statistics course. Participants left with concrete lesson plans and confident that they could improve their courses. The feedback and comments from participants reflected their enthusiasm and appreciation for this professional development opportunity. Thanks to our hosting institution, The Medical College of Wisconsin.

The Statistics Workshop for Math Educators was held at St. Mary's College in Moraga, California. This two day workshop led by Brian Jersky (St. Mary's College) and Rob Gould (UCLA) reviewed the guidelines for the teaching of statistics approved by the American Statistical Association (ASA) and the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), introduced many resources that are available to teachers and demonstrated active learning strategies. A wide variety of participants attended this conference which positively contributed to the perspectives and ideas discussed. New friendships were struck, and several participants plan to keep in touch with the workshop leaders as well as each other as they implement new strategies in their courses. Thanks to our hosting institution, St. Mary's College of California.

CAUSE is planning next year's workshop opportunities and looks to expand to more workshop offerings in addition to workshops that will be offered in conjunction with USCOTS 2007. Look for announcements on the CAUSE workshop page (www.causeweb.org/workshop) soon!

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STATISTICS RESEARCH
Joan Garfield

Statistics Education Research Workshop - CAUSEmos Research Cluster

The Research Cluster will include statistics instructors interested in learning more about current research on teaching and learning statistics, in conducting their own classroom research studies, and/or using their classes in a larger, collaborative study to investigate a question of interest to them. Interested parties may apply for the research cluster during the USCOTS 07 registration process (on-line). The group is limited to 20 people.

The Research Cluster will be engaged in several activities during a 3-year CAUSEmos cycle, to help them become more connected and confident in their ability to do good statistics education research, and to use it to improve their teaching. Prior to USCOTS members of the Research Cluster will received some background readings to review and discuss. During a meeting just prior to USCOTS members will bring and share research questions of interest to them as well as comments and reactions to the articles they read in preparation for this meeting. They will form small groups based on the general areas of interest to them (e.g., use of technology, use of active learning methods, and assessment of students' statistical reasoning). There will be lunch meetings during USCOTS and a Reflection meeting held after the USCOTS closing session as well as an extra day "studio session" after USCOTS ends, to help small groups of participants initiate new collaborative research studies. The results of these studies will be presented at the subsequent USCOTS.

For more information or to indicate your interest in participating in the CAUSEmos research cluster, please contact Joan Garfield at jbg@jmn.edu.

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USCOTS E-NEWS is published quarterly by CAUSE, the Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education (www.causeweb.org).

Send your comments on USCOTS E-NEWS to rumsey@stat.osu.edu.

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