I trust that the school year is going well for you. Here, we are busy with grant evaluations, meetings and teaching our classes, just like a lot of you.

I would like to publicly thank Elaine Carbone and Larry Feldman for doing a terrific job in planning, organizing and acting as the mc’s of our Fall Statistics Conference. It was the first time that most of the teaching faculty of SEQuaL have been able to be together and to look at the past, present and future of K-12 Statistics Education. Sessions were also held concerning the high school AP-Statistics course, plus the first college course in Statistics. A lot of good ideas were shared, and the national team of experts were very helpful. In fact, several of the national leaders made very complimentary statements concerning our project. In particular, Dr. Richard Scheaffer feels that our project should move in a national direction. He said, "the PA program is the best I have seen in the country for bringing teachers at all levels, including college, together for the purpose of introducing statistical concepts into the math curriculum. I hope this model can be exported to other states." We will be contemplating and using these ideas as we consider the future of statistics education in Pennsylvania.

Although we have a trained faculty of 40 very competent teachers who have been involved in the training of over 400 K-12 teachers, there still are a sizeable number of school districts who don’t even have one teacher trained in QL. Let’s continue the task of spreading the word to our students and colleagues.

Don’t forget to try our web page, and please call the center or email us if you have need or desire to communicate with us. If you are on email, feel free to share with us any QL lessons that were particularly successful or were a problem.

As I see the leaves turning their beautiful colors, I think of all that has been accomplished during the exciting beginning of this fall semester. So far, it has been a busy and productive time for our SEQuaL teams.

The various colors of the leaves reflect the many activities that are occurring around Pennsylvania. SEQuaL, like the leaves, continues to brighten mathematics classrooms with exciting QL activities. The leaves will drop from the trees, and reappear in the spring. So do our SEQuaL workshops.

We continue to receive reports that QL activities excite Pennsylvania students. Some teachers are reporting an increase in student test scores which they believe is the result of implementing QL in the mathematics curriculum.

It is my privilege to report the accomplishments of the teams of teachers who attended the multidisciplinary workshop at IUP this past summer. Read my article about the projects which these teams completed during their week at IUP.

In this issue you will also find :

• highlights from our QuaLIFY conference
• articles from the SEQuaL regional sites
• details for the fall Mathematics Academic Alliance for Quantitative Literacy meeting
• winner of the best activity contest from the spring issue
• Larry Feldman's creative column has a permanent name — Larry's Loaded, Luminous, Livid, Lessons

We held our October follow-up session for the third Villanova SEQuaL workshop on Friday, October 17.

The day opened with the “What on Earth?” globe tossing exercise from the EQL materials. No major injuries were reported from globes being tossed too hard, but we did manage to discover a new body of water labeled the “Southern Ocean” on the globe which we were tossing. None of us remembered seeing that ocean in our geography books!

One of the highlights of the session was the “lesson-plan exchange.” Each participant prepared a grade-level appropriate lesson-plan, made copies, and we exchanged them at the session. Everyone went home with a collection of plans and ideas to use in their classrooms. Some of the lesson-plan ideas will grow into project ideas for the assignment due at the final follow-up in March.

Margaret Stempien shared her “Gender Equity” presentation with the group, and it generated some interesting discussion because of the variety of situations represented among the participants. We have a nice mix of teachers from public schools, private schools, and Catholic schools, each with a particular view on the gender equity situation.

Although many of the participants and staff grumbled because the world’s best cafeteria in Donohue Hall was closed during Fall Break, we still had a successful follow-up session. I can’t wait to see the final presentations by the participants in March - I’m sure they will be outstanding!

SEQuaL veterans are invited to encourage their students to participate in the second annual Pennsylvania Statistics Poster Competition. The competition is partially sponsored by the Center for Statistics Education in PA at IUP, and the Pennsylvania Council of Teachers of Mathematics (PCTM), and is open to all K-12 students in Pennsylvania. The deadline for submissions is February 28, 1998. Cash prizes will be awarded.

For more information contact the competition organizers:

Rosemary Reshetar
Phone: (215) 446-3542
E-mail: rreshetar@abim.org and
Tom Short
Phone: (610) 519-6961
E-mail: short@monet.vill.edu,
or check out the Web site http://renoir.vill.edu/~short/posters/

Eight multidisciplinary teams of middle and high school teachers attended the IUP summer workshop. Teams from Derry Area, Rockwood Area, Blairsville-Saltsburg, Troy, Bishop McCort, Dubois Catholic Schools, Neshaminy, and Rochester Area spent a glorious week at IUP during July.

Highlights of four of the team projects follow: The others will be reported in a later issue.

Diane McCollick and Dave Bender - Neshaminy High School - Neshaminy School District

This team did a pilot study at IUP with a water balloon launching project. They experimented with changing the angle of launch and found a quadratic regression to fit the paths. They plan to have their students complete this project during the school year.

Glenn Butters, Doug Beck, Julia McKerrow, and Gary Ward - Troy Middle School -Troy Area School District

This team conducted a survey to examine the stereotype that women own and use more credit cards than men. They gathered data at Walmart by interviewing 30 females and 22 males. By analyzing the data with a two sample t-test, they accepted their alternative hypothesis that women own and use more credit cards than men.

Judie Campbell, Karleen Elder, Ken Hackman - Derry Area Senior High - Derry Area School District

This team did a survey of vehicles at IUP in commuter and faculty lots. They classified colors and types of vehicles, and used a Chi-square test to analyze their data. Their conclusion is that IUP faculty mostly drive red and grey cars, (Editor's note: Coincidentally, these are the IUP school colors!!), and commuters drive red and blue cars.

Mary Lou Metz, Sue Dom, Clair Lewis, Shirley Sowerbrower - Rockwood Area High School

These teachers analyzed data which they gathered at the Putt-putt course at the Holiday Inn. They determined which hole is the most difficult, and if men and women perform equally well at the game. Hole seven proved to be the most difficult. They did not find a significant difference in men and women's scores. This creative group renamed the holes after the SEQuaL faculty.

The QuaLIFY Conference was held on September 26, and 27, 1997 at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. It was cochaired by Elaine Carbone and Larry Feldman

The goals of the conference were:

To share ideas concerning quantitative literacy (QL) among national QL experts, SEQuaL administrative and program development staff, SEQuaL instructional staff, and other interested parties.

To review the history of QL and SEQuaL

To assess the current status of QL and SEQuaL

To project the future of QL in Pennsylvania and in the US

The conference began with a welcome from Elaine Carbone, who greeted the group as the SEQuaL family and invited guests. Larry Feldman also welcomed the participants, and gave an overview of the conference.

Richard Scheaffer, from the University of Florida, discussed the status of QL on a national perspective. Then, Frank Reardon from the Pennsylvania Department of Education spoke on the needs of Pennsylvania. Elaine and Larry followed with a presention on the history of SEQuaL for the national leaders.

The conference was divided into five working theme groups which were led by nationally known professionals in QL.

Judy Zawojewski from National-Lewis University in Chicago who is presently a research associate at the University of Pittsburgh led the Assessment group.

Jim Landwehr of Lucent Technologies-Bell Laboratories led the Multidisciplinary group.

Don Edwards from the University of South Carolina led the Statistics Laboratory group.

Thomas Short from Villanova University led the group on Technology.

Statisticians Douglas Splitstone and Roslyn Stone led a group on Statistical Applications in Work, Citizenship, & Health. Doug is the owner of Splitstone Associates, and Ros is from the Department of Biostatistics at the University of Pittsburgh.

Participants spent two sessions in these groups, and also two sessions in grade level groups. Leaders for the grade level groups were:

Carolyn Bereska from Baltimore County Schools for the K-4 grade level group.

Frank Reardon of PDE for the 6-8 grade level group.

Pat Hopfensperger from the Mequon-Thielsville School District in Mequon, Wisconsin for the 9-12 grade level group.

Jerry Moreno from John Carroll University for the group on the Advanced Placement high school and college first course.

Serving as discussants for the conference and analyzing, synthesizing and making concluding remarks were: Martin Cohen, from the Department of Instruction and Learning at the University of Pittsburgh; Fred Morgan, from the IUP Mathematics Department and Richard Scheaffer, from the Statistics Department at the University of Florida.

Our SEQuaL faculty served as recorders for the conference. It is their notes which have been compiled for this newsletter. More articles will follow as space permits in later newsletters on the conference. We thank the following individuals for the historical account of this conference.

Patricia Flach, Anita Smith, Joe Monteleone, Barbara Lamberski, Jim Preston, Jean Werner, Wes Hunkler, Linda Brecht, Tom Fernsler, Caryn Pugliese, Brenda Ashanti, Renetta Deremer, Jim Bohan, and Bernie Schroeder, Mary Ann Schroeder, and Debbie Gressley.

The assessment group discussed the current methods of assessment in QL, the successes and failures of these methods and possible new methods to improve future assessment. The role of assessment is to allow teachers and students to understand the expectations and goals of a quantitative literacy course.

The issue of a national or state assessment plan was discussed. The role of such a plan is to influfence teachers and curriculum. Unfortunately, such a plan would be very expensive and difficult to implement. Who would score the results? How would the results be scored? How would the assessments get back to the schools, students and teachers? The group considered the idea of developing rubrics and a SEQuaL clearing house of information on the Internet. Teaching aids, lesson plans, and anecdotes could be shared by participants, and feedback would be available.

Not-So Dense Humans, an activity created by Larry Feldman for the QuaLIFY Conference (Sept. 27, 1997). This activity is an expansion of an activity led by Dr. Ruth Shirey from IUP’s Geography Dept. for the IUP Multidisciplinary SEQuaL Conference in the summer of 1997.

State/Country Population (millions) Bodies Needed Area (sq/miles) Chairs Needed Arizona 2.5 1 53.2 4 California 31.4 6 163.7 11 Florida 14.0 3 65.8 4 New Jersey 7.9 2 8.7 1 Ohio 11.1 2 44.8 3 Pennsylvania 12.1 2 46.1 3 Texas 18.4 4 268.6 18 Wisconsin 5.1 1 65.5 4 Japan 125.5 25 145.9 10 Total 46 57

Editor's note: Another suggestion for this activity would be to give students the data except for the columns with the numbers for chairs and bodies. For younger students, the completion of the columns would be a lesson in itself. The activity could also be used for a larger class, combined classes, or a Physical Education class.

Picture this. Those who attended the IUP workshop were photographed with the Japanese population fitting in the number of chairs which represented the California population. Can you imagine that? This activity may have been the reason that they became such a closely knit group! Those attending the QuaLIFY Conference who represented the Japanese population were also photographed. We also have photos of the groups at the conference who chose not to round to the nearest person and creatively represented half of a person. Copies of these photos are available through the Center.

For this newsletter, I will discuss several types of human graphs . At the end (just before the limerick), I'll try to bring up some very brief issues. Some possible good questions to ask about any graph are:

Here are some human graphs. Let me know if you have had successes or problems with any of these, if you know of any variations or extensions, or if you know of other human graphs. It will be easier to understand these plots if you are familiar with them as they are done on paper. Of course, Exploring Data and the Used Numbers books are good sources.

Students can get into lines based on categories such as: "I walk to school," "I take a bus to school," and "I get a ride to school." Then, allow time for the discussion questions.

A method that has worked well for me follows:

Suppose you wanted to graph the distance people traveled to a workshop. You could have rows marked as 10 miles, 20 miles, etc. People would then line up in their rows, holding a card that represents the ones digit. For example, a person who lives 38 miles from the site would line up in the 30 mile row and hold a card with the number 8 on it. After people get in their rows, each row could get in order (the 38 to the right of the 36 and so on). I've actually never tried this, but I will in a class I teach next semester. An S&L plot looks a great deal like a bar graph turned sideways.

After people are in order by the S&L plot they can get out of their rows and into one long line. These can be done without reference to a scale, such as a person with 10 next to an 11 who is next to a 15 where the distance between the 10 and 11 is the same as between the 11 and 15. This would lead to redoing the plot with the distance between the 11 and 15 at 4 times the distance between the 10 and 11.

The human number line plot can be used to create a box and whisker plot. Several of us have done this at many SEQuaL workshops and conferences. You can use string to make a box around the people in the middle quartiles and string that goes to the upper and lower extremes. You can also have cards with a big asterisks on them for outliers. You can use a yard stick for the person who is the median. Personally, I prefer the method for finding the median and quartiles of having one person from the bottom and one person from the top stepping forward at the same time. You keep removing pairs, one from the bottom, one from the top until you find the middle person.

Another nice technique is to have members of one subgroup step forward to the other side of the room to create two box and whisker plots. For example, we have had all teachers in one plot, then asked the elementary teachers to step forward, creating separate elementary and secondary plots.

See the population density lesson elsewhere in this newsletter. That lesson was designed for a group of about 50 people. At Villanova SEQuaL, I did it for a group of 8 people. We did the graphs one at a time and each person represented 4 million people. I also focused on the comparisons between California and Japan; between Florida and Texas; between New Jersey and Wisconsin; and between Ohio and Pennsylvania. This type of activity could be used in many other situations.

Please send me any comments, questions, other issues and/or harangues either to the Center or to my email at lmfeldmn@grove.iup.edu

On to the limerick.

There was a young man named Esser
Whose knowledge grew lesser and lesser
It grew so small
He knew he nothing at all
Now he's a college professor

And you thought there were no clean limericks!!

The Fall meeting for the Mathematics Academic Alliance for Quantitative Literacy (MAAQL) will be held Wednesday, November 19, 1997 at the Rustic Lodge. The theme of the evening will be "Snippets of Statistics K-12." Our featured speakers for the evening will be:

Andrea Wicks of the Apollo Ridge School District will discuss a QL activity which she has conducted at the elementary level.

Rita McMinn of the Marion Center School District, will share "Make It" probability and statistics ideas at the middle level. Rita is well known for these ideas, and they will be applicable to most grade levels.

Mark Zilinskas of the Indiana Area School District will discuss the Advanced Placement Statistics course at the senior high level.

Dr. Jack Shepler, project director, and Debbie Gressley, ARIN coordinator, will welcome the group at 5:00 pm. The speakers will begin at 5:15 pm. Dinner will be served following the presentations.

Make your reservations through your school district, or contact Debbie Gressley at the ARIN Intermediate Unit #28 at 412-463-5300 Ext. 210 by November 10.

Leader: Don Edwards
Recorders: Jean Werner, Jim Preston

The need for a statistics laboratory arises from the concern that a traditional quantitative education does not make it easy for students to understand the context and real world uses of statistics. The group felt that too much time is spent on words and numbers in texts, that there are too many "plug and chug" problems and not enough, if any, team activities. In addition, there was little exposure to sample selection, operational definitions, data collection, experimental design, randomization, or model building, and little support for technical writing. It is believed that a statistics laboratory could overcome these educational shortcomings by providing an environment that illustrates concepts with fun experiments, that shows statistics as a science, that actually shows what tasks statisticians perform, that integrates statistical computing, and that improves technical writing skills.

The statistics lab would follow a statistics class in a high school and college curriculum. The lab class would involve a one hour lecture and two hours of lab exercises. The exercises would use statistics software packages such as Minitab and SPSS. Students would work in teams to solve problems that arise in "real world" situations.

Students would, hopefully, gain a more comfortable knowledge of how statistics works and how to apply it in real life situations. Teachers would gain a better understanding of what types of exercises would help students learn subject matter better.

The group also detailed a list of possible obstacles with a proposed statistics lab. A lab manual and a list of activities would be needed. The initial purchases of the computer equipment and software would provide a financial stumbling block. The lab would also be an unfamiliar environment for teachers and students. Some teachers would possibly play an unfamiliar role as facilitators, and students would have to be much more assertive in their roles and learners. Assessment may need to be addressed differently. Students working in teams allows for possible student conflict. The group agreed that the need for the statistics laboratory outweighs the potential problems.

Special thanks..... to our graduate assistant, Joseph Slater who has transcribed the notes of the conference, and who served as the driver of the conference shuttle.

And also ..............to Nikki Stokes and Christina Greece, our undergraduate assistants who help in so many capacities at the Center.

A team consisting of Jim Bohan, Peggy Lunardini, Ann Massey, and Fred Morgan conducted a K-12 QL workshop in Scranton, PA, during the week of June 22-27, 1997. This workshop was a collaborative effort with Vito Forlenza, Director of Curriculum and Instruction for the Northeastern Educational Intermediate Unit (NEIU) #19 and SEQuaL. NEIU#19 recruited the participants and provided the facilities, the dinner with the consulting statisticians, the amenities, and the materials for the participants' project presentations. SEQuaL provided the teaching team which, in addition to presenting the workshop, recruited the consulting statisticians. One of the participants, Janet Brennan of NEIU#19, was instrumental in handling the local details during the week. In order to keep the QL dialogue between the participants, she has set up of a schedule of monthly meetings for the participants to get together and discuss their activities for the year. I encourage the NEIU#19 participants to take advantage of this. You know how enjoyable it is when you get together. (Editor's note: This may be an idea for other sites.)

In a nutshell, a fun time was had by all and we also learned some QL. The teaching responsibilities of the participants are rather diverse. They include two science teachers. The project teams studied a variety of topics - choice of beef vs. no beef at a fast food restaurant (men prefer beef more than women, but age is not a factor), incidence of traffic light violations (a surprisingly large number), timing changes in traffic light patterns, and customer expenditures at stores that sell alcohol (urban vs. suburban store, men vs. women). The evening with the statisticians was not only informative, but also an enjoyable dining experience.

On the personal side, Jim and Fred played two nine hole rounds of golf, Peggy investigated her "Roots", and Ann and Fred watched the Scranton-Wilkes Barre baseball team in action.

The SEQuaL team appreciates the dedication and interest of the NEIU#19 participants and looks forward to seeing them again in March.

Leader: Jim Landwehr
Recorders: Joe Monteleone, Barbara Lamberski

The multidisciplinary group addressed ways of integrating quantitative literacy into a broad curriculum in pre-college education. The first issue discussed by the group was whether a multidisciplinary approach was needed in QL. Their answer was a resounding "Yes!" Statistics needs to be taught in a diverse environment to allow students to understand the many real world applications of the science. How would this be accomplished? The group suggests a multi-week, multi-teacher, multi-subject project in each year of middle school and high school.

The group then discussed ways of instituting these projects in the education system given the current status of the multidisciplinary approach.

To make multidisciplinary units come together and succeed requires careful planning and implementation by teachers, as well as administrators and parents. SEQuaL's role in encouraging multidisciplinary projects would contribute support through teacher training, through encouragement, and through the distribution of supportive materials like the facilitator's guide.

The group also discussed several problem areas which include scheduling and planning, the perception of arithmetic skills, and the coordination of thematic units.

We will select a group from applicants who are willing to field test activities from the newly developed Facilitator's Guide. Being a field tester means agreeing to try at least three lessons from the guide and provide written feedback on your results which would include constructive criticism. Please call 412-357-6239 or email blambers@ grove.iup.edu if you are interested in this opportunity.

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.