Using the STAT Manual by Jane Hemelt, Prince George’s County Public Schools, Greenbelt, MD
The STAT Manual was originally created for both students and teachers, in the Science and Technology Programs in Prince Georges County, whose courses required a statistical analysis component. In our Research Practicum course, the students are required to do a year-long research project guided by teachers who are well grounded in their scientific fields. However, the teachers were not well grounded in statistical analysis. The STAT Manual took away the anxiety the teachers had for this aspect of the course. In fact, both students and teachers found The STAT Manual to be an enjoyable way to learn. While it was never intended to be the principal text for a statistics course, it has been used as such in middle school settings and even for a college level introductory statistics course. The book is laid out in a dual format: textually, as most statistics books are, and graphically with far more detailed and annotated graphs that can be found in an ordinary statistics book. In fact, it is possible to learn the statistics just by perusing the graphs. Each topic is presented in a plot-type format with villains (those who misinterpret the statistics) and heroes (those who come in with the proper statistical analysis to save the day). Our heroes include Principal Raybo Smith of High Q High School in New Jersey, Toby Mathias, an autistic custodian who saves an entire research project at a prominent pharmaceutical company, a spider named Cleopatra, Running Fox, who was responsible for the founding of an independent top-level science facility, Sandy Kandinsky who counted ants, Temp, a teen-age girl who became the real Santa Claus and many others, including astronauts and guardians who control
time and space. The villains include a menagerie of interesting characters. In fact, you might enjoy the stories whether or not you need to learn the statistics. With help from Howard Hughes Medicine Institute, the mis-
plained, interpreted, and defended. Over the years, we have noticed that students, who simply pushed the buttons and used canned statistical analysis software, had no idea what the output meant. They often published output that had absolutely no relevance to their project and was in fact misleading. Essentially they had no ability to explain what they had done, because they had omitted an important component of their research. It is crucial that we, as teachers, insist that students understand what they are doing. Students who use The STAT Manual have hands-on experience and actually do understand what they are doing. They have the ability to explain their results to teachers, other students, and adjudicators.
It is crucial that we, as teachers, insist that students understand what they are doing.
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sion began. Seven years later, the book was finally published. Along the way, there were teachers’ workshops, presentations at conferences, even testing done by a student focus group. In an educational setting, the mathematical underpinnings of scientific research are themselves an important part of the research. Mathematics is the common accepted element by which all research can be ex-
An unsolicited endorsement came from one of our graduates who was tutoring students: “I totally used The STAT Manual to learn statistics in ~2 hours! I picked up a new student a few months ago, and had to give myself a whirlwind review...I think I learned more reading that book than I did in several YEARS of data analysis at Caltech! Just thought you should know.”
Jane Hemelt, jhemelt@pgcps.org