Spring is a great time for seeing new life bud and for casting off the drudgery of winter. It is also a good time to plan for the future. The SEQuaL Project is looking forward to its most active year (pending funding) with six workshops being planned. There will be K-12 workshops at five regional sites: Edinboro University of PA, Villanova University, Mansfield University of PA, Northeastern IU#19, and Lebanon Lancaster IU#13. A multidisciplinary workshop will also be held at IUP. To reach the corners of the state, some distance learning activities are being planned with the Troy Area School District in Troy and the Millcreek District in Erie. We are also planning a Fall Conference for previous participants who would like to be involved in sharing QL lessons with their colleagues. If you know of a teacher who would benefit from these activities, please spread the word. Our hope would be to reach interested teachers in every school in Pennsylvania. We will only succeed, if we have your help.

SEQuaL was one of the sponsors of the Pennsylvania Statistics poster contest headed by our SEQuaL Villanova director Tom Short. This is the second year for the contest, and we would like to recognize teachers from our workshop who have submitted student entries. Please drop us a note giving the name(s) of the student(s) and the school.

Note also the web site for SEQuaL. http://www.ma.iup.edu/projects/SEQuaL/
index.html. You will notice a new format thanks to our webmaster Mario Mueller.

If we can be of any help to you concerning QL, please contact us.

I have already noticed that my daffodils are rising early and are ready for Spring. It is early, but, they see the light, and they are ready to bloom. In a similar "light," our SEQuaL staff is planning for the upcoming spring, summer, and fall QL activities. The final workshops have begun at Villanova. The presessions will begin May 2 in Mansfield. Find some friends who are interested in an educational summer "vacation," and urge them to attend one of our SEQuaL workshops at the regional sites. If you are a math teacher in grades 6 - 12, you may wish to attend the multidisciplinary workshop at IUP by bringing at least one of your colleagues from another discipline.

Another project which I have begun is a study of the IUP secondary SEQuaL workshops. In the past, the SEQuaL workshops have been evaluated yearly at the end of the workshop week. I feel it would be valuable to determine what teachers are doing in their classrooms today in reference to QL because of SEQuaL, and if the SEQuaL workshops have made a lasting effect on their teaching practices. Past IUP secondary participants will be contacted for the study. If you attended a SEQuaL workshop at IUP, you will receive a survey in the mail sometime in April. It would be very helpful if you would please take the time to complete it for the study.

In this issue you will also find articles about:

	Dates and sites for summer SEQuaL work shops (pending funding).
	The Spring MAAQL meeting
	A continuation of the reports from the 1997 fall QuaLIFY conference and an invitation to a Fall QL Conference
	Larry Feldman's column
	The number 13
	Baseball at Edinboro a la SEQuaL

Pending funding, the following workshops will be held during the summer of 1998

All workshops also include Fall, 1998 and Spring, 1999 one day sessions.
+ Multidisciplinary Teams of teachers, including one who has attended a previous SEQuaL workshop
** Elaine Carbone, Program Coordinator, may also be contacted at 412-357-6239 for information concerning all workshops or email ecarbone@grove.iup.edu or visit http://www.ma.iup.edu/projects/SEQual/index.html for online applications.

Upon completion of all requirements, SEQuaL participants receive 3 free graduate credits from IUP. Free room and board for the summer week is provided at the host site. Participants also receive free classroom materials.

spend one of the best weeks of your life with people who inspire your teaching. Past participants tell us that they have made friendships at our workshops that are very supportive of reforms for teaching and improving student learning. A week at one of our sites is an educational vacation. You arrive for the summer workshop on a Sunday afternoon, and leave on a Friday afternoon. We can provide for your room and board, intellectual stimulation, and still leave you with some time for recreation. Check which dates are open for you, contact the directors, and plan an educational, and inspirational week during the summer of 1998.

The Center for Statistics Education in Pennsylvania (CSEPA) at IUP collects the lessons, logs, student projects, and reports of the QL activities which have been conducted in the classrooms of SEQuaL- trained teachers. All projects, therefore, have been field tested at least once. These projects are first organized into Elementary and Secondary projects. The Elementary projects are then organized by grade level. The Secondary projects are divided by subject such as Algebra, General Mathematics, Trigonometry, etc. Multidisciplinary units from the past two years are separate. Graduate student Becky Weible began the reorganization of the secondary lessons into large three ring binders, and also classified subtopics within each subject area in different sections of the binders. Lessons are also indexed by the teacher's name. Becky completed Pre-algebra, Transition Mathematics and Algebra projects this summer. Nicole Hill, graduate assistant at the Center for this spring, is completing the advanced secondary projects. She will then begin the reorganization of the Elementary projects. All projects are accessible during Center hours and during the Secondary Mathematics Lab hours. Feel free to stop by and browse, or you may wish to call and request copies of lessons for particular courses and subtopics. Lessons have been collected since 1992, so this project is quite extensive. We thank Becky and Nicole for their great work.

Ann Massey, SEQuaL Program Development Specialist, has organized a reception for past, present, and those who are interested in being future SEQuaL participants, at the Pennsylvania Council of Teachers of Mathematics Annual Meeting in Harrisburg. Please join Ann and other SEQuaL friends for some light snacks and conversation.

Are you superstitious? Afraid of a black cat crossing your path? Or breaking a mirror? Do you have a lucky number? If you’re not superstitious, maybe you should be. My research shows that 95% of all people are superstitious about something ....the other 5% are liars.

If you are triskaidekaphobic, you are haunted by a fear of the number 13, and you are probably aware that this year contains three Friday the 13ths. The last time we saw this triple dose of bad luck was in 1987...the next time will be in 2009. Every year has at least one Friday the 13th. The most number of these days that can occur in any one calendar year is three.

Superstition about the number 13 continues even in these civilized times. In 1995, 13 was the subject of the popular movie “Apollo 13”, and the continuing irrational belief about the power of 13 also contributes to the box-office success of the series of cult films inspired by the original “Friday the 13th”, a potpourri of summer camp dismemberment activities.

Most triskaidekaphobes can easily recall for nonbelievers a multitude of historical data to support their fear. After all, they say, Jesus was the 13th at the last supper, and look what happened to Him. But the belief that fatal consequences will befall one of a group of 13 diners at a table may have its roots in Nordic mythology.

The fear of dining 13 at a table tormented Napoleon, J. Paul Getty, Herbert Hoover, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Mark Twain. Twain told a friend of an invitation to be the 13th guest at a dinner party. Horrified, the friend advised him, “Don’t go! It’s bad luck!” To which Twain replied, “Nonsense.” The next day, Twain met the friend again and said, “I admit that you were right about the dinner. It WAS bad luck. There was only enough food for twelve.”

To this day, in Paris, a quatorzieme, or professional 14th guest, can be hired on short notice to round-out an otherwise doomed dinner party. FDR's secretary, Grace Tully, recalled that, in the White House, "...on several occasions I received last-minute summonses to attend a lunch or dinner party because a belated default or a last-minute addition had brought the guest list to 13."

Even in death, FDR narrowly escaped a Friday the 13th, the end coming on the afternoon of Thursday, April 12, 1945.

Well, the idea that numbers, in addition to being useful for calculations and recording data, are sacred, perfect, friendly, lucky or evil goes back to the time of Pythagoras, who investigated numbers with a religious fanaticism. In fact, Pythagoras believed that 13 was masculine, lucky, and dynamic, in direct contrast to numerologists of today who consider 13 to be a restless number. Restless to the point of being evil.

Friday the 13th conjures up twice the fear, stemming from Friday's reputation as a day of bad luck, and owing to the label of Friday as "hangman's day". But a century ago, Decius Wade, the Chief Justice of Montana, trying to rid Friday from its moniker, described how he had sentenced a murderer to be hanged on a Thursday, saying, " I could not see but the fellow enjoyed it just as well as though Friday had been the day appointed, and I thought that poor abused Friday looked a little brighter the next morning.

I personally have no fear of the evidence that 13 has evil powers. After all, for each negative association of the number 13, like the 13 witches in a coven, there can probably be found a positive association, such as the 13 original colonies. In fact, Colgate University in New York was founded by 13 men with 13 dollars and 13 prayers in 1817, and each year holds a Founder's Day Convocation to dedicate the new academic year.

Here are some additional facts about the number 13:

** The OPEC oil cartel has 13 member nations.
** Fidel Castro was born on Friday, August 13, 1926.
** Butch Cassidy was born on Friday, April 13, 1866.
** During the Salem, MA witch trials, 13 women were executed.
** In a letter to a friend dated Friday, November 13, 1789, Ben Franklin wrote "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."
** According to a Harris poll conducted in the spring of 1993, 13% of the respondents believed that Friday the 13th is an unlucky day. (Hey, I don't make 'em up, I just report 'em)+

** On Friday, December 13, 1907, Emmy Noether received her PhD from the University of Erlangen in Germany.
** On Friday, June 13, 1676, Isaac Newton announced the discovery of the binomial theorem.
** The first live television broadcast into a private home occurred on Friday, April 13, 1928. (With MY luck, the show was probably MTV.)

You may decide that the number 13 holds no magical, mystical or sinister powers, but the mathematical evidence in favor of SOME power is strong. In 1969, a mathematics student named S. R. Baxter published a paper in the Mathematical Gazette titled: "To Prove That The 13th Day Of The Month Is More Likely To Be A Friday Than Any Other Day Of The Week". Baxter reported that during a 400-year period, which is the amount of time it takes our calendar to recycle itself, the 13th of the month falls on Thursday and Saturday 684 times each, Monday and Tuesday 685 times each, and Sunday and Wednesday 687 times each. It falls on Friday 688 times. And by the way, Baxter's age at the time he wrote the article was...13.

Horror writer and famous triskaidekaphobe Stephen King was just glad to be around after 1984, the year during which he published his 13th book. But, he said then, "...the year I'm really dreading is 1998. In that triple-whammy year I'll be 49. Can you add 4 and 9? That's the year I may really spend in a bomb shelter."

I always felt that I was immune to the effects of the number 13 until I traveled to the 1992 NCTM Nashville Meeting. Prior to my departure, I weighed myself...169 pounds...which of course is the 13th multiple of 13. (I think I'm probably up to about the 15th multiple of 13 now) My flight arrived at the Nashville International Airport at 13:13 hours local time, and I called for transportation to my hotel by pressing button number...13. Well, I must have been butter, because I KNEW I was on a roll. (continued on next page)

Jim Rubillo was the guest speaker at one of the Villanova SEQuaL sessions. He is a wonderful speaker and I stole and expanded one of his activities. The question was "how would you characterize the members of this group?". What I found to be even more interesting was the moral of this activity which goes something like "Statistics may (or may not) tell you something about a group as a whole but it should not be used to make conclusions about individuals in that group." This moral is often lost on society as a whole. For many people, when they hear that females score lower on the SAT math test, they tend to assume that any female they meet will not do well in math.

I have adapted this slightly for each audience, the handout below was designed for a combined undergraduate / graduate course at IUP in statistics for elementary and middle school teachers. Most of these questions are straightforward but several are not. Of course, it can be just as effective with other questions as long as you usually reach the goal of having no one who matches all of the most popular responses.

Question #3 (Thumb type) is a little subjective but a hitchhiker's thumb is more curved at the top. Question #5 (Eyedness — is that a real word?) can be found by looking at a small object at the other side of the room. Extend your arm and put a finger up to block your vision of the small object. Then try closing one eye at a time with the finger still up. If the finger is still blocking the object when your right eye is open while the finger is no longer blocking the object when your left eye is open, you are right-eyed. For question #6 (footedness),

stand with your feet together and have someone gently push you from the back. Whichever foot you put out first to block your fall is your "footedness foot." For #7 (Arm on top), I have used "which arm is on top when you fold your arms" and some were unable to answer so I changed it to "which arm is visible when you fold your arms". Now there are still people who cannot answer, so "do the best you can". One of the more enjoyable parts of this activity is to get people to stick their tongues out and show the U with their tongue or how they twist their tongues (questions #9 and 10). I keep forgetting to bring a camera.

After going through the questions, we then collect the data and students complete the third and fourth columns. I then summarize that this group is "brown-eyed, brown-haired," and all the other modal responses. I ask them how they feel about that characterization both of the group and of each individual. Then the class stands up. If a student is not in the mode for question #1, they sit down. Of those still standing, people sit down if they are not in the mode for #2, and so on until no one is standing. Usually this takes 10 or so questions.

This paradox is a little bit of a surprise — the "typical person" is not an actual person in the class at all, so in what sense is that (nonexisting) person typical? If you don't ask enough questions or you get an unusual person, you may get someone who matches all the modal responses but the moral still holds — "does this person describe you?". One outcome that totally surprised me was one time the person with the most matches in a class I was teaching was me. The one professor in a group of students was the typical person!

This story can help to work against some of the stereotypes that can come out of misrepresentations of statistics. Although each person belongs to many groups, no one should assume that people share the characteristics of the group.

I remember when at another university I was at before IUP, an international student who turned out to be an outstanding student was almost rejected because the last international student had not worked out well. Someone had made the conclusion that the "typical international student" does not work out.

See the next page for the activity.

13 Continued
By Tom Fernsler

When I arrived at the Convention Center the next morning, 13 minutes early,the chairs, lectern, overhead projector and screen were being removed from the conference room in which I was to speak. Moments before, a ceiling pipe had burst just above the podium area, and I was forced to present my talk in the adjacent lobby. In the midst of numerous apologies from the convention center staff, I was told that, in the whole history of the building, this had never happened before. When I concluded my talk, the pipe was repaired, the furniture replaced, and the remaining presentations were completed in that room without incident.

Colleagues point to the Nashville experience as evidence and insist that I MUST fear the number 13 now. But in truth, I’m not superstitious. I do admit, however, that every time I fly in an airplane, I always wear the same shoes, the same socks, the same jeans, the same shirt, the same underwear, and the same lucky cap...but I’M not superstitious.

By Patricia Flach, Director

In order to provide authentic and meaningful data collection activities for the northwestern Pennsylvania site, SEQuaL teammates traveled to the home of the Pittsburgh Pirates Class A farm team, the Erie SeaWolves for an outstanding evening of statistics. Join with our team as we sing a somewhat familiar tune, rearranged by SEQuaL members Julie Kaufman, Tim Landry, Wendy McKain, and Bill Roberts:

Take Us Out to the Ball Game

All of our teachers decided to focus on the baseball players, the teams, or the game for their week long project. Participants were intense as they charted where balls were hit, which pitch was swung on, and many other details of the game. SEQuaL teams hugging their clipboards must have been quite impressive to the rest of the SeaWolves' crowd--even the usher wanted to know why there were so many scouts in attendance!

In addition to the game of baseball, throughout the week, our teammates participated in many board and classroom games involving probability and statistics. We also familiarized ourselves with technology, children's math trade books, alternative assessment, and the integration of mathematics and social studies using USA Today.

Getting together in October provided us with the opportunities to renew not only our enthusiasm for statistics and probability, but also the many fine, new friendships formed during our week together. SEQuaL at EUP had a winning team of its own.

Dr. Thomas Fernsler

Assistant Professor of Education
Mansfield University
Mansfield, PA

Tom Fernsler received his D. Ed. from Penn State University in 1983. His teaching experiences range from Kindergarten through graduate school. Some facts about our new Mansfield director may be of interest to you. He lists his Honors as: Voted “Most Likely to Remain a Nerd” by Annville-Cleona High School senior class of 1971, and a National Science Foundation scholar, West Virginia University, 1979. His favorite areas of math are statistics and mathematical connections. He is renown for Triskaidekaphobia. (See his article in this newsletter.) He appeared on NBC, ABC, and CBS TV and radio, the BBC TV and radio, the UPN network production “Strange Universe” and the “Today Show” in Australia. He has been on radio talk shows around the world, most recently in Tokyo, Japan, and is scheduled to appear with astronaut Jim Lovell on the A&E program “The Unexplained”, which, he supposes, explains why the producers want him. He was in the January 19, 1998 issue of US News & World Report (page 8) and on the front page of the Wall Street Journal twice.

Mr. James Bohan

K-12 Mathematics Coordinator
Manheim Township School District
Lancaster, PA.

Jim's varied experiences include teaching and supervising mathematics instruction in parochial, private, and public K-12 institutions over the past 30 years. In addition, he is a veteran adjunct teacher for several colleges and universities, previously in Illinois and presently in Pennsylvania.

Our new regional director for Intermediate Unit #13 is very involved with professional organizations. He is presently the Chairman of the IU#13 Mathematics Consortium, the Eastern 2 Regional Director for the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics and is the Eastern 2 Regional Representative to the Regional Services Committee of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Jim is also a consultant to the College Board for both AP Calculus and AP Statistics.

Jim has published several articles in the PCTM Newsletter, the PCTM Yearbooks and in the NCTM’s Mathematics Teacher. Among his other pursuits, he is now working towards a Master’s of Science degree in Applied Statistics at Villanova University.

Leader: Jerry Moreno
Recorder: Renetta Deremer

The First Course group felt that the first Statistics course, either an AP course in high school or “Stats 101” in college, needs to be improved because students are not retaining, understanding, and applying the subject, but are taking the class to merely receive the credits. The issue of whether AP Statistics should be the model for a first college course was discussed in depth. The disagreement on this issue was whether or not students in college were of the proper caliber to gain from the level of material in an AP-like course in Statistics. The issue was also raised of the problem of how to fit a comprehensive introductory course in Statistics into one semester, which is the length of time frequently allowed by colleges and universities to teach Quantitative Literacy to non-math and industrial engineering students. Finally the problem was raised of how to convince other (non-math) educators that most current introductory Probability and Statistics courses are poorly designed.

The following recommendations were made by the First Course Group:

SEQuaL workshops should be expanded. Keep SEQuaL I the way it is, but concentrate SEQuaL II on grades 7-12. SEQuaL II should also infuse Quantitative Literacy into all studies, emphasize instruction and assessment, and lead to and address issues concerning AP Statistics. SEQuaL II should furthermore concentrate on AP Statistics and a first college Statistics course with an emphasis for those persons knowledgeable in Quantitative Literacy.

The SEQuaL newsletter and web page should be expanded to include AP Statistics and “Statistics 101” issues.

SSHEMA and MAA conferences should be used as resources for SEQuaL as PCTM and NCTM conferences currently are.

SEQuaL should focus on making a connection to other disciplines and real-event issues.

Leaders: Roslyn Stone, Doug Splitstone
Recorders: Mary Ann Schroeder, Debbie Gressley

The "Stat Apps" group felt strongly that because critical thinking skills are essential in all content areas, the teaching of Quantitative Literacy is important to all people. The challenge is to find interesting real-world problems and age-appropriate materials to combine with a proper use of technology to teach Quantitative Literacy to students.

The group made the following recommendations:

Interfaces should be developed to allow educators, researchers, and those in industry to compare related work in other content areas.

The integration of statistical reasoning in non-trivial real-world problems with quantitative techniques should be employed.

The visibility of projects, conferences and SEQuaL meetings should be increased.

The current methods and materials in Quantitative Literacy should be critically evaluated.

Leader: Thomas Short
Recorder: Wes Hunkler

The Technology Group made the following recommendations:

Explore and investigate the motivation for using technology in teaching statistics.

The focus of future SEQuaL technology sessions should be to schedule parallel sessions of calculator and computer instruction so that participants could emphasize the type of technology which is available in their schools.

To improve student performance and increase their attention

Reviewing current curriculum and assessment techniques should be included in the technology learning process.

Teachers should be careful to teach concepts prior to technology procedures so that students understand the mathematics which is being simplified by the use of the technology.

Connect SEQuaL with the community by establish a strong web presence, construct a concise list of “model” resources and recruit people who have hands-on experience with statistics-integrated technology to attend future SEQuaL workshops.

Leader: Carolyn Bereska
Recorders: Patricia Flach, Anita Smith

The K-5th Grade group compiled a wish list for the SEQuaL Santas:
The group wishes for opportunities to preview K-5 Statistics software.
The group wants more opportunities to collaborate with SEQuaL leaders.
The group hopes for authentic project opportunities.
The group also asks for the future involvement of pre-service (student) teachers in the SEQuaL training.
The group also wishes to collaborate more with local colleges and universities on the goals of SEQuaL.
The group also wants to gather ideas on how to make partnerships with school districts in order to in-service practicing teachers.
They also hoped for more emphasis on assessment techniques.

Leader: Frank Reardon
Recorders: Caryn Pugliese, Brenda Ashanti

The 6th-8th grade group felt that not many teachers are prepared to teach Quantitative Literacy. They also felt that there was a need for professional development that would include both content and methodology, and that SEQuaL could provide educators with this type of professional development.

The group made several suggestions and recommendations:
SEQuaL could train selected teachers who would then go back to their schools and instruct other teachers in the content and methods which they learned at the workshops.
The group also saw the need to familiarize parents with the purpose of Quantitative Literacy in their children’s education.
Quantitative Literacy should be taught using the multidisciplinary approach so students could see real-life applications of Probability and Statistics.
Projects should be used in the teaching of Quantitative Literacy to help students integrate ideas, and create a context for broad-based assessment.
SEQuaL’s existing resources should be combined to increase its impact in urban areas.

Leader: Pat Hopfensperger
Recorders: Jim Bohan, Bernie Schroeder

The 9th-12th-grade group discussed possible resources that could be, or currently are being, used. Among these are:
Data-driven textbooks, the Core+ program and teaching Algebra II through Data Analysis.
A bank of NCTM standards-based lesson plans.
Possible new textbooks.

This group made several recommendations:
They recommended keeping a separate statistics course offering while investigating ways to incorporate Quantitative Literacy into the traditional Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II sequence.
For future SEQuaL workshops, participants should bring their district math curriculum with them, and share them with their SEQuaL peers.
Workshop objectives should be refocused to incorporate the teaching of statistical concepts in the 9 through 12 courses.
Time should be allowed for district teams to incorporate ideas and subject teams to discuss key topics and a time line. The time line would be designed to decide what, if any, topics could be removed and what Quantitative Literacy subjects should be incorporated.

All SEQuaL participants are invited to attend a one-day conference to help them conduct a QL inservice workshop in their own district . The goal of the conference is to have SEQuaL participants teach QL activities to colleagues who are unfamiliar with SEQuaL. The idea for this conference came through the suggestions at the QuaLIFY conference, as you may have noted from the summaries. Larry Feldman and Ann Massey are the coordinators for this conference. This conference will be another opportunity for SEQuaL teachers to work together to think about how to use the SEQuaL Facilitator's Guide and other activities with other teachers. Further information will follow, or call CSEPA. Mark Friday, October 9, 1998 on your calendar.

Please send 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: Tom Fernsler, Patricia Flach, Vito Forlenza, Allan Rossman, Tom Short; Program Development Specialists: Larry Feldman, Barbara Lamberski, Ann Massey, John Uccellini. University Teaching Faculty: Caryn Pugliese, Glenn Rock, Bernie Schroeder, Jean Werner K-12 Teaching Faculty: Brenda Ashanti, John Aufman, James Bogaczyk, Jim Bohan, Linda Brecht, Chris Brueningsen, Lorrie Bucklen, John Costango, Marlene Davis, Renetta Deremer, Charles Fleming, Arlene Gaudioso, Ted Gordish, Phyllis Howard, Wes Hunkler, Barbara Kaufman, Peggy Lunardini, Jill Mackey, Michael McBride, Rita McMinn, Joseph Monteleone, James Preston, Anita Smith, Carol Tanweer, Jennifer Traynor.