The next U.S. Conference on Teaching Statistics (USCOTS) will be held on June 1-3, 2023 at
the Penn Stater in State College, Pennsylvania, with pre-conference workshops beginning on
May 30. This in-person conference will bring together teachers of statistics and data
science for engaging sessions on the conference theme of “Communicating with/about Data.”
(See below for more information about USCOTS and this theme.)
Opportunities to participate in USCOTS will include pre-conference workshops, interactive
breakout sessions, poster-and-beyond presentations, birds-of-a-feather discussions, and a
speed mentoring session. A satellite conference devoted to education research in
statistics and data science will be held in conjunction with USCOTS.
Please save the dates and spread the word. Also watch for a call for proposals that will
be sent out within the next month. More information will be posted at:
https://causeweb.org/cause/uscots/uscots23<https://nam10.safelinks.prote…amp;reserved=0>.
Questions about USCOTS can be sent to program chairs Allan Rossman
(arossman@calpoly.edu<mailto:arossman@calpoly.edu>) and Kelly McConville
(kmcconville@g.harvard.edu<mailto:kmcconville@g.harvard.edu>). We hope to see you
in person at the Penn Stater in the spring of 2023!
--- Allan Rossman and Kelly McConville
CAUSE has held the United States Conference on Teaching Statistics (USCOTS) every other
year since 2005. The 2023 USCOTS will be held on Thursday, June 1st - Saturday, June 3rd
at the Penn Stater Conference Center in State College, Pennsylvania, with pre-conference
workshops on Tuesday, May 30th – Thursday, June 1st. The conference theme is Communicating
with/about Data.
USCOTS enables teachers of statistics and data science to exchange ideas and discover how
to improve their teaching. The conference features thought-provoking plenary sessions,
interactive breakout sessions, informative posters-and-beyond sessions, and engaging
exhibitor technology demonstrations. Other highlights of the conference include opening
and closing sessions comprised of inspiring five-minute presentations, a banquet with an
after-dinner speaker and awards presentations, and birds-of-a-feather lunch discussions.
We trust that you will find USCOTS to provide a very welcoming, active, and fun
environment. We hope that you will meet new colleagues and renew friendships with peers
who are united by a common desire to teach statistics and data science effectively to the
next generation of citizens and scholars.
About the Theme:
Communicating is an essential component of all academic disciplines. Statistics is by no
means exempt. All aspects of a statistical investigation – asking questions, designing
studies, collecting data, analyzing data, drawing conclusions – involve communication.
Conducting an important study and gaining key insights are only worthwhile if the findings
can be communicated effectively to stakeholders and the public.
Moreover, all human interactions rely on effective communication. Teaching and learning
are by no means exempt. A key aspect of teaching involves communication between teacher
and learner, in both directions, as well as among learners.
That explains the first word in our conference theme. What about the last word, the other
capitalized word? Data lie at the center of the practice of statistics, as well as the
teaching and learning of statistics. Statistics teachers strive for their students to
become adept with data in all aspects, from collecting to wrangling to analyzing to
drawing conclusions.
This brings us to the two prepositions in the theme. Communicating with data is crucial
for making evidence-based arguments, for making others aware of insights that one garners
from working with data. Such communication occurs in many ways: with words for sure, but
also through visualizations, summaries, code, and notation. Helping students to
communicate well with data is an integral, and challenging, objective in most statistics
courses.
Communicating about data is what statistics teachers do on a daily basis. Teachers
communicate with students to lead them to explore and develop their understanding about
statistical concepts, such as variability, sampling, bias, confounding, tendency,
association, and on and on.
This conference will feature sessions that address all aspects of Communicating with/about
Data, with two broad sub-themes:
* Helping students to communicate the process and results of their statistical
analyses,
* Helping teachers to communicate with students in order to develop their
understanding of statistical concepts and their ability to implement statistical methods.