I hope that everyone is maintaining their sanity with the hope of spring coming and is able to dig out of the record level of snow that we have had this year. Perhaps we have just observed an outlier concerning the severity of the winter!! Spring is a time when we at CSEPA look forward to continuing our work in QL and the excitement it engenders in our students and teachers. We are also excited anticipating the projects which will be presented at the five sites as our teachers return and report on their latest SEQuaL activities in their classrooms. You can look forward to several of these activities in upcoming issues which we will share. Several outstanding projects will also be presented by teachers at our Spring MAAQL meeting on April 25 at the Rustic Lodge.

The presentations that Jack Shepler and I have given at annual meetings of the American Statistical Association the last four summers have begun to have an impact in other regions of the country. June Morita (University of Washington ), who attended our roundtable discussion in Boston (1992), was able to secure Eisenhower funding and conduct a QL workshop in her area in the summer of 1993. Edd Mansfield (University of Alabama) invited me to visit his campus in November of 1995 and help his project team to prepare an Eisenhower proposal similar to ours.
continued on page 7

In this issue, our SEQuaL regional sites are highlighted with a report on their first post workshop activities. As you read their articles, realize that you can contact the Center for handouts of any of the activities mentioned. Another article is a lesson on "Skittles" by Deb Romano from the Apollo-Ridge School District. Deb was part of the 1993-94 SEQuaL workshop group. There is also a summary report of the Fall Mathematics Academic Alliance for Quantitative Literacy (MAAQL) meeting for those who were not able to attend.

Our last issue of Quantitative Literature featured articles on "Mathematics Across the Curriculum." It drew more requests for additional newsletters, and received more positive responses than any of our newsletters printed thus far. I am a member of a listserv on which a request for information on "Mathematics Across the Curriculum" was posted. When I responded to the request and mentioned that our newsletter featured this particular topic, I received numerous requests for our newsletter from all parts of the country, as well as from India and Australia.

As our SEQuaL team traditionally attempts to respond to the needs of educators and students, I am requesting more articles on how mathematics is related to other disciplines. Consider sharing any ideas which you have used in your classrooms. Note the paragraph by Mark Van Doren from Liberal Education (contributed by Lou Talman) which provides an excellent philosophy for "across the curriculum" work.

The first follow-up for the Villanova SEQuaL workshop was held on Friday, October 20. Since our friend Iddo Gal had recently moved with his family back to Israel, we had a brief moment of silence in his honor. He will be missed - need we say more? We started off with a couple of simulation activities - “Waiting in Lines” and “What can you learn from a footprint?” Larry Feldman revised “footprint” to “upper arm print”, and he had us all get chalk on our arms as we pressed them up against the chalkboard to be measured! The highlight of the day was a presentation on "Gender Equity" by Margaret Stempien. The issues Margaret raised generated discussions that lasted throughout the follow-up session. In technology sessions, participants explored Minitab, Data Insights, and calculators including the TI-82 and the TI-12 Math Explorer. We also had a brief demonstration of educational resources which are available on the World Wide Web. Each of the participants brought copies of a statistical lesson plan, and we had an exchange that provided everyone with resources and ideas for topics to include in classroom lessons and in the SEQuaL final presentation. Our day concluded with watching tapes of the final presentations by IUP SEQuaL participants from years past. We are all eager to make our final presentations on March 15, and join the SEQuaL veteran’s hall of fame!

Editor's note: You may enjoy visiting: http://renoir.vill.edu/~short/SEQuaL_links.html

Check with workshop directors for times and places.

We, at Mansfield University were particularly happy that the SNOWS did not start until after our October post session meeting for the 1995 SEQuaL Workshop. I hope that the snow will be over or at least at a minimum so all of our participants can join us for our Spring Session on March 22nd at Mansfield University. The post session was divided into four sections. There were presentations from Fred Morgan, Tom Fernsler, and Jean Werner and a “Time for Sharing”. The presentations included a queuing activity, data gathering and analysis, and a simulation emphasizing how statistics can be used to estimate the size of populations. The “Time for Sharing” was particularly well received by the participants. Many of the teachers expressed that they were happy to hear the statistical ideas from the other teachers as well as how others had implemented their ideas into their classrooms. The teachers shared their concerns as well as their successes. We all learned. We are all looking forward to meeting again with our wonderful participants at Mansfield University on March 22nd in 204 Memorial Hall.

Participants in the Dickinson SEQuaL workshop reconvened on October 27, 1995 to share ideas for bringing probability, statistics, and data into their classrooms. The participants engaged in rousing games of the dice game HOG and other enlightening (and occasionally amusing) activities. Jim Bohan demonstrated the use of CBL (calculator-based laboratory) tools for collecting and analyzing data. Participants and presenters alike look forward to returning to Dickinson on March 22, 1996 to hear tales of the bringing of quantitative literacy to classrooms of south central Pennsylvania.

During a cold snowy November 4th workshop, we needed a flurry of activities to keep us warm. After everyone was introduced to the Math Curse, they shared their QL experiences to date. We heard about the kindergarteners’ analysis of their trip to the pumpkin farm, and older students incorporating data analysis with science experiments. Both groups played HOG and analyzed it to optimize their chances of winning. The secondary group used the TI-82’s to perform line and curve sketching with a lot of different data groups. Finally Monte Carlo simulations, using a variety of materials, were conducted to solve some in-depth probability problems.

Allan Rossman, professor of mathematics at Dickinson College and Dickinson’s SEQuaL team director, has written a textbook that has just been published by Springer-Verlag. Titled Workshop Statistics: Discovery with Data, this text contains activities which guide students to discover statistical concepts, explore statistical principles, and apply statistical techniques. Students work toward these goals through the analysis of genuine data and through interaction with each other, with their instructor, and with technology. Providing a one-semester introduction to fundamental ideas of statistics for college and advanced high school students, Workshop Statistics is designed for courses which employ an interactive learning environment by replacing lectures with hands-on activities. The text contains enough expository material to stand alone, but it can also be used to supplement a more traditional textbook. Distinguishing features of Workshop Statistics are its emphases on active learning, conceptual understanding, genuine data, and the use of technology. Anyone wishing to order a copy may phone 1-800-SPRINGE. Editor's Note: The author states that although this book is intended for a beginning college audience, it’s also appropriate for advanced high school students.

This activity was used in a second grade class during four class periods, approximately 35 - 40 minutes each. The students calculated the color distribution in a package of Skittles candies. They sorted and collected data, represented it in several ways and finally drew conclusions about the color distribution.

Day 1: The students each received a small package of Skittles candies and a half-dozen egg carton. Teacher discussed package contents. The students opened packages and discussed colors of contents. Students predicted which color is most popular and which one is least popular just by looking at the whole package when spilled. Students then organized Skittles by colors in the egg carton. Then they counted the number of each color and recorded on a class chart with numbers. When everyone recorded their numbers on the class chart, students used calculators to find the total number of each color in the whole class. The egg cartons were closed, labeled, and saved for the next day.

Day 2: Students recounted their Skittles by color categories and represented them with connecting cubes.

Students were given 1-inch graph paper to color representing their Skittles. The bar graphs were collected and kept for the following day's activity. Students thoroughly enjoyed making the gigantic towers. They found it hard to believe there were so many Skittles in our room. Once again the cartons of Skittles were collect for the following day. It was difficult to keep the connecting cubes together in such a large model. They were propped against the wall and we had to use clear tape to help them stay together.

Day 3: We made a collective representation of the class total of each color by connecting all of our "Skittle towers." We began by evaluating our work from the previous day, discussing how our results on our paper graphs compared to our tower representations. Students were introduced to a pictograph. We started a class pictograph. Students used the appropriate color crayon to represent their Skittles in the corresponding color area. The pictograph was passed around the room as the students worked independently to add their data. At the same time, after an inquiry from one of the students, we decided to cut apart the individual bar graphs from the previous day to glue them together to form a class bar graph. The students enjoyed manipulating their "Skittles" as data, and talking about how their data affected the class results.

Day 4: On our final day of the activity, we were going to evaluate our results. The discussion led to the question, "Does all our data match?" Our next job was to check it to see if everything correlated, and therefore was recorded accurately. We found that our numbers were very close. Some of them were actually exact! We looked back at our original predictions as to which color was the most occurring in the Skittles packages. We talked about why those colors were found the most. Then we began discussing what our chances would be of getting various colors, when we would reach into a Skittles bag. The students wrote about the results, "reading" the data, then commenting on what they saw.

Editor's Note: This is an example of the types of lesson plans that are available in the Center. This particular idea can be adapted to middle and secondary classes with some creativity on the part of the teacher.

The conference in Scotland which I attended, titled “Mathematics Teaching 1995” was held at Napier University and sponsored by the University of Edinburgh. There were more than 100 high school math teachers in attendance from England and Scotland. The main speaker was Margaret Rangecroft from Sheffield University. The only reason I mention this is because the title of her talk was “Teaching Statistics in the Real World.” Believe it or not, she started her talk by doing the globe-toss activity to approximate the percentage of water on the earth’s surface. This activity was followed by the capture-recapture activity. These are the same activities that we do at SEQuaL. Of course, since they’re close to the sea, she talked about whales instead of trout! She finished with an interesting activity on approximating binomial coefficients using answers to random questions that she asked folks in the audience. So, QL is definitely alive in the United Kingdom! It was very interesting to see.

I did a workshop on the TI-82 and CBL together with two other US teachers, Linda Antinone (from Texas) and Debbie Crawford (from South Carolina). It seemed to be very well received.

Teachers in the UK are just starting to use graphing calculators. Texas Instruments has started an ad campaign on the BBC.

I also had a chance to visit the Hermitage Academy in Scotland which is a public secondary school. It was hard to tell it was a public school, since all the students were so well behaved and they were all wearing uniforms. Their curriculum is quite different. It's totally integrated. There are no year-long courses on algebra, geometry, or calculus—it's all mixed together. They do teach a whole semester on statistics to their seniors, in addition to the sampling of statistical concepts which they are exposed to during their earlier years. There's a possibility that one or two of the teachers from that school will be coming to visit Kiski sometime this year.

Editor's note: Congratulations to Chris on becoming an internationally renowned speaker! All of us at SEQuaL are very proud of you.

“The immediate task of educators is to convince themselves that the arts of language and the arts of science are equally and indeed mutually humane.

Education suffers from the sense it has that one set of arts is more conservative and respectable than the other, and that it is being fought to extinction by the other set. If such a conflict were real it would destroy the world we have known. The arts of literature, religion, ethics, and politics are not to be thought of as holding out against science and mathematics. When they are so thought of, the reason is that science and mathematics are not understood as being and having art, as capable of ultimate refinement, as radical in the root sense of necessary, after the fashion of poetry when poetry is something better than a reservoir of decayed beliefs. "Language and mathematics are the mother tongues of our rational selves''—that is, of the human race—and no student should be permitted to be speechless in either tongue, whatever value he sets upon his special gifts, and however sure he may be at sixteen or eighteen that he knows the uses to which his mind will eventually be put. This would be like amputating his left hand because he did not seem to be ambidextrous. The languages of art and science are of twin importance. It is crippling to be illiterate in either, and the natural curriculum does not choose between them. They are two ways in which the student will have to express himself; they are two ways in which the truth gets known."

—Mark Van Doren
Liberal Education

The Fall MAAQL Meeting was held at the Rustic Lodge on Thursday, December 7, 1995 after the original date needed to be rescheduled because of the first snowstorm of the season. (Remember that?) Three speakers addressed uses of technology in the classroom. Dr. Rebecca Stoudt, of the IUP Mathematics Department, demonstrated the new TI-92 graphing calculator with uses from algebra, geometry, and calculus. Her finale was graphing a 3 D sombrero.

Elaine Carbone addressed the use of the TI-82 and the Calculator Based Laboratory (CBL) which she has used at the high school level with Algebra I and Algebra II classes. A demonstration of using a light sensor connected to the CBL with the "Jump" program calculated how high volunteer Dr. Larry Feldman jumped. Elaine had gathered data in the IUP mathematics department which she shared. Twenty nine professors attempted vertical jumps which were calculated by the CBL and TI-82 calculator. She showed a box and whisker plot of that data. She also shared her experience with the CBL and the light sensor from the Mansfield University's SEQuaL workshop this past summer.

Dr. Larry Feldman presented some research which he has conducted during his sabbatical in his presentation "Caught in the Net: A Sampling of Elementary Mathematics on the Internet." Dr. Feldman shared data specifically for elementary teachers who are able to connect to the World Wide Web through the use of the Internet. He shared examples of home pages of several elementary students.

The evening concluded with participants being very excited about Dr. Feldman's talk and wanting more information and hands-on instruction in connecting to the Internet and the World Wide Web. Plans are to have the next Fall MAAQL meeting at the ARIN Intermediate Unit #28 with a hands-on Web/Internet workshop for the meeting.

The traditional Spring MAAQL meeting will bring the best QL presentations from the teachers of the SEQuaL workshop for the 1995-1996 school year. It will be held at the Rustic Lodge on April 25, 1996. Reservations are available through your school district. If an invitation is not received, you may contact Debbie Gressley at ARIN at 412-349-5300.

I found our recently that his fI I I I found out that recently his team has secured funding for one year with tentative approval for a second year. The good news for us is that his grant will provide for a four-member team (two elementary and two secondary) from SEQuaL to conduct a QL workshop at the University of Alabama this summer. As soon as the dates for this workshop are finalized (tentatively July 14 - 19), we will be looking for four people to comprise the team to go to Alabama. With this success in Alabama, I am hopeful that I can encourage interested individuals in Minnesota and Missouri to try for Eisenhower funds in their respective states next fall. Who knows, maybe we can go international some day.

In browsing the World Wide Web, you may be interested in visiting our SEQuaL home page which can be accessed through the home page of the Department of Mathematics at IUP. An article which was published in the winter 1994 issue of The Statistics Teacher by Fred Morgan and Jack Shepler describes the SEQuaL workshops. The direct web address is http://www.ma.iup.edu/
MathDept/Projects/SEQuaL/
summary.html. You will find a link to an electronic journal in statistics education through the IUP Math department's home page.

Please sent articles for this newsletter or comments to: Editor Elaine Carbone, 211 Stright Hall, IUP, Indiana, PA 15705-1087. Ph: 412-357-6239 or FAX 412-357-2616. Internet: ECARBONE@oak.grove.iup.edu. This newsletter is published through the Center for Statistics Education in PA at IUP. Director: Jack Shepler, Assistant Director: Fred Morgan, Program Coordinator: Elaine Carbone; Regional Directors: Allan Rossman, Tom Short, Caryn Pugliese, Jean Werner; Teaching Faculty: John Aufman, Jim Bohan, Linda Brecht, Christ Brueningsen, Lorrie Bucklen, John Costango, Marlene Davis, Roger Davis, Renetta Deremer, Larry Feldman, Thomas Fernsler, Patricia Flach, Charles Flemming, Iddo Gal, Arlene, Gaudioso, Ted Gordish, Nancy Hawes, Wes Hunkler, Barb Lamberski, Peggy Lunardini, Ann Massey, Rita McMinn, Glenn Rock, Bernie Schroeder, Anita Smith, Carole Tanweer, Jennifer Traynor, John Uccellini.