Science Education
The Department of Statistics, in cooperation with the College of Science and the University, is committed to excellence in statistical education. Many faculty members in the Department have distinguished records of teaching success as evidenced by the teaching awards they have received.Members of the Department are involved in creating and revising courses in ways that respond to changing understanding of what helps students learn.
Professor Bruce A. Craig has been actively involved in developing interactive learning approaches to strengthen and reinforce statistical analysis and inference as well as developing both written and oral communication skills. He is now a coauthor with David S. Moore and George McCabe of Introduction to the Practice of Statistics, a widely used textbook now in its sixth edition.
Professor
John Deely is a specialist in instruction who also specializes in Bayesian statistical research. Dr. Deely teaches
our largest course, STAT 113, Statistics and Society.
This course is aimed at students in the liberal arts
and related disciplines. It is non-traditional in
content, broader and less algebraic than traditional
courses. The philosophy of the course is that every educated person should be acquainted
with statistical reasoning. By presenting practical real life examples from many areas of society
and carefully demonstrating the elementary statistical techniques involved,
this acquaintance is readily available.
Ellen Gundlach is the coordinator and an instructor for STAT 301, online course developer and instructor for STAT 301, and the course coordinator for STAT 225. She finds incorporating fun, hands-on activities into the classroom helps students understand and master elementary statistical methods. 
STAT 301 students learn two-way ANOVA using gummy-bear popsicle
stick catapults.
Gundlach is interested in developing materials to help other educators be more successful in teaching statistical concepts to their students. Some of these activities include: filming a video for W.H. Freeman & Co. that shows statistics educators hands-on lecture activities that can be used for introductory statistics courses; development of interactive Stats@Work applets for StatsPortal to accompany Professors George McCabe, David S. Moore, and Bruce Craig's book, Introduction to the Practice of Statistics; and writing the Instructor's Guide and the Student Solutions Manual for Moore, McCabe, Duckworth and Alwan's The Practice of Business Statistics, 2nd edition. Gundlach is also serving as Co-PI on an NSF-funded project with PI Dr. Nancy Pelaez from Purdue's Department of Biological Sciences which will incorporate statistical literacy writing assignments into a freshman biology class. As the faculty advisor for STATCOM P-12 Outreach, a graduate student run organization, she spreads her passion for teaching statistics to both graduate students and P-12 teachers in the local community.
During the Fall 2009 semester, she is experimenting with a "STAT 301 Purdue University" Facebook group for any students or instructors who are interested in joining. The site will be a place for students to find help and support from other students and instructors, online office hours before exams, discussions of the material, and links to online articles and videos related to statistics.
In 2007 Gundlach was recognized with the David S. Moore Service Teaching Award and the College of Science Graduate Student Mentoring Award. Gundlach was named an Associate Fellow of Purdue's Teaching Academy in October, 2008 and in 2009 Gundlach was the recipient of the Teaching and Learning Technologies Distance Education Incentive Award.
Professor George McCabe has been actively involved in developing ways to create teaching environments where students are actively involved in the statistical analysis of data and drawing conclusions from their analyses. With David Moore and Bruce Craig, he is coauthor of Introduction to the Practice of Statistics, a widely used text that is now in its sixth edition and which has been translated into Dutch, Portuguese, and Japanese.
The leader of the Department's work in education has been Professor
David S. Moore. Professor Moore was one of the first three Purdue
faculty named Distinguished Professor for the Scholarship of Teaching.
He has written widely on statistics education, has received the
Mathematical Association of America's national award for distinguished
teaching, and was the first President of the International Association
for Statistical Education, as well as 1998 President of the American
Statistical Association. Some of Professor Moore's articles are
available on his
Web page. With George McCabe and Bruce Craig, he is the coauthor of Introduction to the Practice of Statistics, a widely used text that is now in its sixth edition. Professor Moore retired from the Department of Statistics in
2004.Purdue's Teaching Academy offers University-wide programs for mentoring, informing, and recognizing teachers. Statistics faculty have participated in the Academy's "Conversations on Teaching" program.
The Department of Statistics regularly offers courses in Purdue's Continuing Engineering Education, CEE, program. This program allows Purdue to extend it's knowledge-based resources into the world. It offers graduate and professional development courses, on-campus and off-campus programs, master's degree programs, and satellite teleconferences encompassing engineering and engineering-management disciplines.
Professor Jennings teaches STAT 512 to a CEE class.
