Dear SSDSE Members,
Happy 2025! I hope your year is off to a wonderful start. In this letter, I want to highlight some relevant section-related activities, initiatives, and upcoming events. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Share Your Ideas
● First, I would like to ask you to fill out this form for suggestions for webinars and other activities. Please provide your suggestions for future section activities, such as webinars, reading groups, learning communities, workshops, meet-ups, etc.!
2025 Conferences
● JSM: The Joint Statistical Meetings will be held August 2-7, 2025, in Nashville Tennessee. You still have until February 3rd to submit an abstract for a contributed paper, poster, speed, or roundtable presentation. Come to Nashville to share your ideas and your experiences teaching statistics and data science! Reach out to Prince Afriyie (pa5jg@virginia.edu) if you have any questions about the process. In the spring, Tyler George will advertise for Birds-of-a-Feather session leaders.
● USCOTS: The 2025 United States Conference on Teaching Statistics will be held July 15-19, 2025, at Iowa State University (pre-conference July 15-17; conference July 17-19). There is still time to submit:
○ A Research Satellite Poster proposal by January 27th.
○ A Contributed Research Satellite Presentation proposal by January 27th.
○ A nomination for the 2025 George Cobb Lifetime Achievement Award in Statistics Education by March 1st.
○ A Posters and Beyond proposal by March 3rd.
○ An A-Mu-Sing Competition entry by April 1st.
○ A Birds of a Feather Discussion proposal by June 20th.
● SDSS 2025: The Symposium on Data Science and Statistics will be held April 29-May 2, 2025, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Lightning Submissions are open until February 5th.
Staying Connected
● Blog: The section blog is a great place to learn more about section happenings and members. If you have ideas for blog posts, please reach out to Sara Stoudt or me. We are also looking for more suggestions for the meet-a-member series.
○ Provide suggestions here.
○ Or, even better, fill out this form so that we can feature you on the blog.
● Mentoring Program: We encourage you to consider participating in the section's mentoring program–either as a mentor or as a mentee. The mentoring program allows statistics and data science educators new to the discipline to build connections with more senior faculty. These connections are mutually beneficial, supporting the mentee to grow in their professional goals and keeping more experienced faculty connected with new educators. The mentoring committee will send out a request for people to sign up in early May.
Learning Opportunities
● EAPOST: EAPOST is an NSF funded (DUE-2235355) project to support undergraduate instructors of statistics. We still have a few remaining slots open in our current EAPost Scholars program. If you are selected for the program, you will receive support to implement a module (1-2 class periods) in your classroom this term (Jan-Mar/Apr/May 2025): you will gain access to ready-to-use materials, personalized guidance, and a $250 stipend for your participation. Learn more and sign up here. We will review new applications until we are full! We'd also love to see you in our google group to receive announcements about upcoming workshops, materials, and other faculty development opportunities. You can join the group by clicking this link. Contact Nathan Tintle (nathan.tintle@isi-stats.com) for more information.
● Love Data Week: Consider participating in International Love Data Week, which will take place February 10-14, 2025. There are opportunities to attend or lead activities and workshops.
● JSDSE: Take a look at the latest issue of the open access, peer-reviewed ASA's Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education, available at https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/ujse20/current. If you are interested in becoming a reviewer or getting involved in another capacity with the journal, please contact Juana Sanchez (jsanchez@stat.ucla.edu), the new Editor. Also, be sure to explore their webinar series, which is held in collaboration with CAUSE, at www.causeweb.org/cause/webinars?field_series_tid=37.
Other Ways to Get Involved
● GAISE: The College Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education Revision group has finalized Ten Recommendations for Statistics and Data Science. The committee has also posted a draft of the Student Learning Outcomes for Introductory Statistics. You can submit comments on the data science section and other suggestions here.
● Member Initiative Grants: Each year the section funds a few small grants for innovative and impactful initiatives in statistics and data science education. We will send out an announcement advertising this year's application in late spring.
● Two-Year College Fellows Program: The section runs a fellowship program for high school and two-year college teachers. During their two-year term, the fellows receive career mentorship and lead a discussion about their teaching experiences at a statistics conference. We will be advertising for the two-year college fellowship this spring with the two-year term starting in August.
● Waller Awards: You have until February 15th to make a nomination for the Waller Education Award or the Waller Distinguished Teaching Career Award.
● USPROC: If you are supervising undergraduate research or planning to incorporate projects into your winter/spring courses, encourage your students to submit their work to the Undergraduate Statistics Project Competition. The spring deadline is Wednesday, June 18th.
○ Organizers will begin advertising for judges in a couple of months, at which point they will send out a Google form for interested judges to complete. In the meantime, if you have questions or if you want to judge the competition, please reach out to Ciaran Evans (evansc@wfu.edu).
● Create a Professional Development Course for Instats: The ASA has a new partnership for offering virtual professional development courses. If you are interested in creating and offering a course, contact Donna LaLonde (donnal@amstat.org) for more information.
● Vote in the ASA Elections: The election for the Board of Directors positions and section officers will open in April. Participate!
● Stay in Touch: Send me a message (lisa.kay@eku.edu) if you have questions, concerns, or suggestions.
Thanks to all of our Executive Committee members (outgoing, incoming, and current), and thanks to all of you for helping create a supportive and engaging section!
Best,
Lisa W. Kay
2025 Chair of the Section on Statistics and Data Science Education
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