Last year, I went from teaching in classrooms in a pretty building with a library on the ground floor to teaching on-line. I also went from the semester system to teaching the same content in four weeks. This has led curious friends of mine, used to teaching in the traditional format, to ask , How…
Since it is the weekend, I decided to blog about weekend stuff. Look for more statistics tomorrow. For most of the past quarter-century, I have been roped into being a volunteer for one organization or another. Here is a very, very partial list: American Association on Mental Retardation National Council on Family Relations United States…
I find it weird when I make people nervous. I’ve had people shake and stutter so much that I thought they had some sort of disability, only to find out later that it was a reaction to meeting me! My family and friends say I’m intimidating, which I also find bizarre. I am, literally, a…
Every day, every week, I face the same question that all entrepreneurs ask themselves – “How do you know when you are done?” Most days, I start work around 10 am and finish about 14 hours later. Usually, I take off an hour for lunch and an hour for dinner, or take a few hours…
Following a discussion using matrix algebra to show computation in a Multivariate Analysis of Variance, a doctoral student asked me, “Professor, when will I ever use this? Why do I need to know this?” He had a valid point. I’m always asking myself why I’m teaching something. Is it because it interests me personally, because…
I’m pretty certain that I’m a woman in technology. Last night, I was using SAS on a virtual machine through a remote desktop connection to prepare data from the National Hospital Discharge Survey for use in examples of MANOVA and multinomial logistic regression. Today, I was working on improving animation in the Javascript for a…
Yes, I do realize that I’m probably far more excited about our new website coming on line than is normal. Several points here on a Friday night: I completely disagree with those entrepreneurs who say, “You sell the sizzle not the steak” when what they mean is that they really don’t have a good product…
It’s still technically the weekend so I’m not blogging about statistics until tomorrow. After some debate, I do think I have a multivariate stat textbook selected, though, so that’s good. I got an invitation to go to a luncheon an old friend of mine sets up every few months for a bunch of us that…
The new common core standards have statistics first taught in the sixth grade, or so they say. I disagree with this statement because as I see it, much of the basis of statistics is taught in the earlier grades, although not called by that name. Here are just a few examples: Bar graphs Line plots…
I’m working on a section of a game that teaches fractions. If a player misses the question about where to meet up with the returning hunter, he or she gets sent to study. There is a movie that plays before this about needing to get back to the camp before dark. Here is the question,…