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The CAUSE Cartoon Caption Contest for April is now taking entries!

by Taylor, Kati

The Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education is happy to announce our 95th Cartoon Caption Contest! Each month a cartoon, drawn by British cartoonist John Landers, is posted for you and your students to suggest statistical captions (cartoons are posted at the beginning of the month and submissions are due at the end of the month). The caption contest is offered as a fun way to get your students thinking independently about statistical concepts. The next cartoon and the entry rules for the contest ending April 30 are at https://www.causeweb.org/cause/caption-contest/april/2024/submissions The best submission will be posted on CAUSEweb and the winner(s) will receive their choice of a coffee mug or t-shirt imprinted with the final cartoon or free registration to eCOTS2024. Enjoy. [cid:c927de11-7951-4ad5-a07a-efa3d59e49bd] March Results: The March caption contest cartoon is shown above. The judges found the winning caption to be “Left unsupervised, confounding children will turn raw data into processed junk” submitted by Grant Zoo a student at the University of Virginia. Grant’s caption illustrates the idea that an inappropriate process of collecting data may be a confounder in its interpretation. An honorable mention this month goes to an anonymous submission for the caption "Tossing out the outliers does not leave you will a healthy data set.,” similar to the winning caption this one, focusing on outliers, helps in discussing the idea that grabbing just the data you want does not provide a representative sample. Thanks to everyone who submitted a caption and congratulations to our winners! Finally, we would like to recognize the great work of Gary Hatfield from South Dakota State University who is retiring this semester and leaving the caption contest judging panel after eight years. If you would like to take part in the judging of the CAUSE caption contest please email Dennis Pearl at dkp13(a)psu.edu<mailto:dkp13@psu.edu> by April 20th.

2 weeks, 3 days

Fall 2023 Undergraduate Statistics Project Competition (USPROC) winners

by Taylor, Kati

Hello everyone, We are delighted to announce the winners of the Undergraduate Statistics Project Competition (USPROC) Fall 2023 submission cycle! USPROC includes the Undergraduate Statistics Class Project (USCLAP) competition which has introductory and intermediate categories, and an Undergraduate Statistics Research Project (USRESP) competition. The winners of the competitions and links to their projects may be found at the sites below: * USCLAP winners: https://www.causeweb.org/usproc/usclap/2023/fall/winners * USRESP winners: https://www.causeweb.org/usproc/usresp/2023/fall/winners Congratulations to all student winners and their faculty mentors! Please encourage students to submit their class projects, capstone projects, and independent research projects for our next cycle. The new deadline is Friday, June 21st, 2024. Learn more about the project competitions at the USPROC website<https://www.causeweb.org/usproc>. Winners receive cash prizes and have the opportunity to present at the Electronic Undergraduate Statistics Research Conference (eUSR)! If you’re interested in judging projects for the Spring 2024 submission cycle, fill out this form<https://forms.gle/jMTttcVJYhxn1kvr5>. Anyone interested in judging projects will be given projects to judge. The Electronic Undergraduate Statistics Research Conference (eUSR), which runs each fall, is a FREE online conference where undergraduate statistics & data science students present their work, learn more about careers in statistics & data science, and acquire valuable information about applying to, and succeeding in, graduate school. Past keynote speakers have included Robert Santos, Director - U.S. Census Bureau and Sydeaka Watson, Senior Research Scientist (Data Scientist) at Eli Lilly and Company. All undergraduate students and faculty are invited to attend. The next eUSR will take place in early November 2024. The event is free, but registration is required. Please encourage your students to attend and participate in this year’s conference. Learn more about the free conference at the eUSR website<https://www.causeweb.org/usproc/eusr/2023>. Best, Jennifer Ward, Juanjuan Fan, Ciaran Evans, Monika Hu, Shaoyang Ning Co-Chairs of USPROC + eUSR

2 weeks, 6 days

April Webinar Announcement

by Taylor, Kati

Training Interdisciplinary Data Science Collaborators: A Comparative Case Study Tuesday, April 9, 2024 4:00 - 4:30 pm ET Presented by: Eric Vance (University of Colorado Boulder) and Jessica Alzen (University of Colorado Boulder) Abstract: In this April edition of the JSDSE/CAUSE webinar series, we highlight the 2023 article: Training Interdisciplinary Data Science Collaborators: A Comparative Case Study. The authors will discuss their work developing a method for teaching statistics and data science collaboration, a framework for identifying elements of effective collaboration, and a comparative case study to evaluate the collaboration skills of both a team of students and an experienced collaborator on two components of effective data science collaboration: structuring a collaboration meeting and communicating with a domain expert. Results show that the students could facilitate meetings and communicate comparably well to the experienced collaborator, but that the experienced collaborator was better able to facilitate meetings and communicate to develop strong relationships, an important element for high-quality and long-term collaboration. Further work is needed to generalize these findings to a larger population, but these results begin to inform the field regarding effective ways to teach specific data science collaboration skills. Article Link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/26939169.2023.2191666 The webinar is free but pre-registration is required. Please sign up at: https://www.causeweb.org/cause/webinar/jsdse/2024-04 Please join us! Ciaran Evans

3 weeks, 4 days

TSHS Spring 2024 Webinar: "Meeting students where they are: K-12 Biostatistics outreach"

by Taylor, Kati

The ASA Section on Teaching of Statistics in the Health Sciences (TSHS) is excited to present our Spring 2024 webinar. Marta Shore, Lecturer in the Division of Biostatistics and Health Data Science at the University of Minnesota, will moderate our 2-hour panel discussion with Dr. Anne Eaton, Assistant Professor in the Division of Biostatistics and Health Data Science at the University of Minnesota; Dr. Sarah Samorodnitsky, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center; Michelle Sonnenberger, PhD Graduate Student in the Division of Biostatistics and Health Data Science at the University of Minnesota; and Dr. Jacqueline Hicks, Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Biostatistics at the School of Public Health, Boston University. They will discuss approaches to diversify K-12 promotion and recruitment as well as collaboration opportunities. The webinar is FREE and open to all. Details and registration information are below. TITLE: Meeting students where they are: K-12 Biostatistics outreach PANELISTS: Marta Shore, University of Minnesota (moderator) Dr. Anne Eaton, University of Minnesota Dr. Sarah Samorodnitsky, Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center Michelle Sonnenberger, University of Minnesota Dr. Jacqueline Hicks, School of Public Health, Boston University DATE/TIME: Tuesday, April 9, 2024, 3:00-5:00pm Central Time (US & Canada) VENUE: Online webinar hosted using the Zoom platform ABSTRACT: K-12 outreach has traditionally focused on bringing students to campus to see what Biostatisticians do. This approach is a great entry point for students who already know about our field and can see themselves as biostatisticians. However, many students who would make effective biostatisticians do not either know of or take advantage of these opportunities. We have decided to instead meet K-12 students where they are by working with programs that already exist. In this webinar, we will explore two different approaches to diversify K-12 promotion and recruitment. Biostatistics Community Outreach and Engagement (BCOE) collaborates with middle- and high-school teachers to integrate biostatistics and data science into the science curriculum and give career talks. In both efforts, students learn both what we do and who we are, with a focus on what motivates us as biostatisticians. We will discuss three collaboration opportunities: serving as statistical consultants for a 12th-grade biology class, creating web applets for air quality data and determining dosing for clinical trials, and class career visits. Boston University Upward Bound is a part of the federally funded TRIO program that provides academic support to low-income and first-generation college-bound students. To qualify, students need to either meet TRIO low-income guidelines or be first-generation college. During the six-week summer residence program, Boston University's School of Public Health collaborates with the Upward Bound program students to learn about the field of public health and biostatistics. We teach them skills in data collection, analysis, presentation and advocacy. REGISTRATION: To register for the webinar, please complete this form: https://uniofqueensland.syd1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cI0NDghK6qHyV6u We will send the Zoom link for the webinar to your email address the day before the webinar.

4 weeks

Announcing new Director of CAUSE: Matt Beckman

by Taylor, Kati

On behalf of the CAUSE (Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education) Board of Directors, I am very pleased to announce that Dr. Matthew Beckman has been appointed to a three-year term as Director of CAUSE, beginning on July 1, 2024. Matt is Director of Undergraduate Programs and Associate Research Professor in the Department of Statistics at Pennsylvania State University. He earned his Ph.D. in Statistics Education at the University of Minnesota. Matt’s research interests span a variety of topics in statistics and data science education, primarily at the undergraduate level, with a particular focus on assessment development. He has been active in CAUSE activities for many years, including serving as Associate Co-Director for Research, along with Laura Le. Matt will succeed Dennis Pearl as CAUSE Director, as Dennis will be retiring from Penn State and from his CAUSE on June 30 of this year. Dennis has led CAUSE since its inception in 2002. CAUSE has thrived under Dennis’s skillful leadership, with activities ranging from holding the conferences on teaching statistics to running competitions for undergraduate statistics projects and research, from compiling a collection of resources for teaching statistics to hosting repositories devoted to issues such as JEDI (justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion) and fun (cartoons, poems, songs, …), and many more. Thousands of statistics teachers, and even more of their students, from across the country and around the world, have benefitted from Dennis’s terrific leadership of CAUSE. Many thanks and best wishes to both Dennis and Matt as they approach this stage of transition. Thanks also to Penn State’s Department of Statistics for its continuing and generous support of CAUSE. --- Allan Rossman, for the CAUSE Board of Directors, arossman(a)calpoly.edu<mailto:arossman@calpoly.edu>

1 month

Announcing the 2024 SPARKS challenge

by Taylor, Kati

CAUSE is looking to grow our collection of very short (only 10-20 seconds) video clips that could be used in teaching statistics, by depicting an interesting real-world context and either explicitly posing a question or implicitly positioning a teacher/student to pose many questions to investigate. Or maybe you have a really short poem or jingle! For inspiration, see the sample SPARKS<https://www.causeweb.org/cause/resources/fun/all/video/spark>:. The SPARKS judges will award free registration to eCOTS<https://www.causeweb.org/cause/ecots/ecots24> for any submissions added to the collection! Enter your short video here<https://www.causeweb.org/cause/sparks/submit>.

1 month

Join the Fall 2024 Cohort of the Statistics Teaching and Technology Studies

by Taylor, Kati

Do you teach undergraduate introductory statistics? Would you consider joining a large-scale effort to enhance course outcomes for students who identify as Black, Latine, Indigenous, People of Color, from low-income homes, or the first in their families to go to college? Digital Promise is looking for instructors to participate in the Fall 2024 Cohort of the Statistics Teaching and Technology Studies (STATS)<http://statsresearch.org/>. This research has been funded by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and examines the implementation and efficacy of a new introductory statistics courseware based on the Charles A. Dana Center's curriculum and incorporating active learning and real-world examples. What does it mean to be in the STATS Fall ‘24 Cohort? * Participate in a set of online research activities including student surveys, instructor surveys, and a statistics concept assessment for 3 academic terms * Implement the Lumen One courseware starting either in the Fall 24 or the Fall 25 term * FREE access to the Lumen One courseware for any instructor and student in a class implementing the courseware as part of the research * A $1000 / semester honorarium for instructors participating in the research (for a total of $3,000 for 3 semesters) * Up to $8000 institutional honorarium (dependent on implementation year and number of participating instructors) * Gain additional insight into the engagement and learning outcomes of students in your introductory statistics sections To learn more, email Emily Pressler (epressler(a)digitalpromise.org<mailto:epressler@digitalpromise.org>) for a brief research info session. There is no obligation to join the research after meeting with Emily. We look forward to hearing from you! Emily Pressler, PhD (she/her) Postsecondary Field Research Director, Learning Sciences Research epressler(a)digitalpromise.org

1 month, 1 week

March Webinar Announcement

by Taylor, Kati

Active-Learning Class Activities and Shiny Applications for Teaching Support Vector Classifiers Thursday, March 21, 2024 12:00 - 12:30 pm ET Presented by: Qing Wang (Wellesley College) and Xizhen Cai (Williams College) Abstract: In this March edition of the JSDSE/CAUSE webinar series, we highlight the 2023 article: Active-Learning Class Activities and Shiny Applications for Teaching Support Vector Classifiers. The authors will discuss support vector classifiers, one of the most popular linear classification techniques for binary classification. Different from some commonly seen model fitting criteria in statistics, such as the ordinary least squares criterion and the maximum likelihood method, its algorithm depends on an optimization problem under constraints, which is unconventional to many students in a second or third course in statistics or data science. As a result, this topic is often not as intuitive to students as some of the more traditional statistical modeling tools. In order to facilitate students’ mastery of the topic and promote active learning, the authors have developed some in-class activities and their accompanying Shiny applications for teaching support vector classifiers. The designed course materials aim at engaging students through group work and solidifying students’ understanding of the algorithm via hands-on explorations. The Shiny applications offer interactive demonstration of the changes of the components of a support vector classifier when altering its determining parameters. Article Link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/26939169.2023.2231065 The webinar is free but pre-registration is required. Please sign up at: https://causeweb.org/cause/webinar/jsdse/2024-03 Please join us! Ciaran Evans

1 month, 2 weeks

The CAUSE Cartoon Caption Contest for March is now taking entries!

by Taylor, Kati

The Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education is happy to announce our 94th Cartoon Caption Contest! Each month a cartoon, drawn by British cartoonist John Landers, is posted for you and your students to suggest statistical captions (cartoons are posted at the beginning of the month and submissions are due at the end of the month). The caption contest is offered as a fun way to get your students thinking independently about statistical concepts. The next cartoon and the entry rules for the contest ending March 31 are at https://www.causeweb.org/cause/caption-contest/march/2024/submissions The best submission will be posted on CAUSEweb and the winner(s) will receive their choice of a coffee mug or t-shirt imprinted with the final cartoon or free registration to eCOTS2024. [cid:bf7ab8c1-a352-4e30-b9a5-d15ad68ee5ce] Enjoy. February Results: The February caption contest cartoon is shown above. The judges found the winning caption to be “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall: Tried to eggstrapolate, but had a fall! All the king’s horses, women, and men couldn’t do modeling with that small n!” submitted by Larry Lesser from The University of Texas at El Paso. Larry’s caption illustrates the dangers of extrapolation beyond the range of the data and that making reliable predictions from models requires an adequate sample size to estimate parameters. An honorable mention this month goes to Jim Alloway from EMSQ Associates for the caption "The analysts headed for cover when their unmaintained model unEGGspectedly broke.,” to help in discussing the idea that predictive models must be updated with current data to remain effective. A second honorable mention goes to an anonymous submission for the caption “Humpty's upward trend wasn't what it was cracked up to be,” that can be used to discuss the dangers of predicting future events from past performance. Thanks to everyone who submitted a caption and congratulations to our winners!

1 month, 2 weeks

eCOTS 2024

by Mocko,Megan E

Hi everyone, More due dates are approaching for eCOTS 2024 (June 10-13) - Learn more here - www.causeweb.org/cause/ecots/ecots24<https://www.causeweb.org/cause/ecots/ecots24> * Please submit Posters and Beyond proposals by March 17th. Please submit by this deadlines to be a part of the program for eCOTS 2024 "What's Next? Moving Forward". Please let Judith (Judith Canner jcanner(a)csumb.edu<mailto:jcanner@csumb.edu>) for Posters and Beyond. Looking forward to "seeing" you there! Megan

1 month, 2 weeks

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