1 / 33

Including a History of Statistics Course in your Curriculum

Including a History of Statistics Course in your Curriculum. Phyllis Curtiss curtissp@gvsu.edu Kirk Anderson anderkir@gvsu.edu Grand Valley State University JSM 2015. Faculty Reading Group. 2003: David Salsburg’s The Lady Tasting Tea

footej
Download Presentation

Including a History of Statistics Course in your Curriculum

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Including a History of Statistics Course in your Curriculum Phyllis Curtiss curtissp@gvsu.edu Kirk Anderson anderkir@gvsu.edu Grand Valley State University JSM 2015

  2. Faculty Reading Group • 2003: David Salsburg’sThe Lady Tasting Tea • 2005: First time offering a 1-Credit Discussion Course • 2008: Went through curriculum, offered every Spring.

  3. One-Credit Class • Meet one time a week • “The Lady Tasting Tea: How Statistics Revolutionized Science in the 20th century,” by David Salsburg • Read 2 – 3 chapters a week and discuss as a class

  4. Class Expectations #1 Students will be expected to read the book and participate in discussions. In addition, each student will lead at least one of the discussions.

  5. Discussion Leaders You will also be asked to find pictures of the people mentioned in those chapters of the book. These pictures must be e-mailed to BOTH professors by 11am the day of class. Also include the web site address of each picture source.

  6. Examples from a studentPatrick Herta – Chapters 8-9

  7. Class Expectations #2 There will be 3 to 5 times throughout the semester in which you will be asked to locate a book or article mentioned, or find additional information about a topic or person mentioned in the book. You will then share your findings with the class the next time we meet.

  8. ExamplesBooks from the Library Pearson, Karl. 1892. Grammar of Science (Mentioned in Chapter 2, on page 11 of Salsburg) Salsburgsays this book is “written in a smooth, simple style that makes it accessible to anyone.” He further mentions that you “don‘t have to know mathematics to read and understand” this book. We assign a student to check the book out of the library, asking if they agree with Salsburg‘s assessment.

  9. ExamplesBooks from the Library Fisher, R. A. 1929. Statistical Methods for Research Workers. (Mentioned in Chapter 4, on page 38 of Salsburg) Salsburgsays “It could be handed to a lab technician with minimum mathematical training, and that technician could use it.” The student that brings this book to class is asked their opinion on the statements made by Salsburg.

  10. ExamplesFinding Articles • Fisher, R.A. and MacKenzie, W.A. 1923. Studies in Crop Variation. II. The Manurial Response of Different Potato Varieties. Journal of Agricultural Science, v. 13:311-320. (Mentioned in Chapter 5, on page 48 of Salsburg) • “Student” 1908. The Probable Error of a Mean. Biometrika,6(1), 1-25. (Mentioned in Chapter 3, on page 28 of Salsburg)

  11. ExamplesPictures, Bios, Extra Information, etc • Reverand Thomas Bayes (Mentioned in Chapter 13, on page 128 of Salsburg) • Florence Nightingale (Mentioned in Chapter Chapter 15, on page 151 of Salsburg) • PersiDiaconis (Mentioned in Chapter 21, on page 222 of Salsburg)

  12. Recipe for Guinness Stout ice cream http://www.emerils.com/recipes/by_name/guinness_stout_ice_cream.html • Ingredients needed: (Makes about 2 cups or enough to serve 4 to 6 people) • 1 pint Guinness Stout (reduced - see below) • 3 egg yolks • 2 tablespoons sugar • 1 cup milk • 2 tablespoons heavy cream • If the bowl of your ice cream maker has to be frozen, make sure to do so. In a saucepan bring the pint of Guinness to a boil and let it reduce to about half to concentrate the flavor. Whip the egg yolks and sugar until pale and thick. In another saucepan bring the milk and cream to a boil. Pour a bit of the boiling milk mixture over the yolks and whisk continuously to bring everything to the same temperature. Then pour the egg yolk/milk mixture back into the saucepan with the remaining milk and whisk well. Return the saucepan to the stove and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens just enough to coat the back of a wooden spatula. Do not allow the mixture to boil. Strain the mixture through a fine strainer or 2 layers of cheesecloth. Cover loosely and quickly place in an ice bath. Whisk in the Guinness Stout reduction. Place the mixture into an ice cream machine and follow the manufacturer's instructions.

  13. Class Expectations #3 The Final Exam You will write a 4-5 page paper about a famous statistician that you would like to learn more about. The statistician you choose must be Okayed by the professors since we expect everyone to have a different person. This paper must have at least 3 additional references, besides the textbook. More Later…

  14. From a Student:Auroleus Phillipus Theostratus Bombastus von Hohenheim Paracelsus

  15. Occupations listed as: • Alchemist • Physician • Astrologer • Scientist • Occultists • Dabbled in necromancy

  16. The Dancing Plague of 1518 “Those whose thoughts are free, lewd, impertinent and full of lasciviousness are prone to developing a voluptuous urge to dance…the whores and scoundrels who succumb need to have their imaginations tamed in a dark and unpleasant place”--Paracelsus • Paracelsus dubbed the disease chorea lasciva and its victims “choreomaniacs” • If locking the victims in a dark room with only bread and water didn’t work, then Paracelsus suggested fashioning a wax or resin model of the dancers, transferring their thoughts into the model, and casting it into a fire • True and very well documented, dancing plagues occurred multiple times in medieval Europe

  17. Inaccuracies in Salsburg Comment from a Student: “I would have liked to see more reading materials addressed outside of The Lady Tasting Tea. There were some points in the book that seemed to be inaccurate, and supplemental reading may help uncover the real history behind the topics addressed. Also, accepting one piece of literature on a subject and studying it alone could paint a one-sided or somewhat inaccurate picture.”

  18. Inaccuracies in SalsburgThe Lady Tasting Tea Salsburg’s Version: (first 2 pages of chapter 1) “He began to outline an experiment in which the lady who insisted there was a difference would be presented with a sequence of cups of tea, in some of which the milk had been poured into the tea and in others of which the tea had been poured into the milk.”

  19. The Lady Tasting Tea Fisher’s Version from The Design of Experiments in 1935:

  20. The Lady Tasting Tea

  21. More on the LADY

  22. Fisher’s Death Excerpt from John Ludbrook:

  23. Tim Whitley Review in the Journal of Chemical Education (2001) • “Salsburg intends this book “to describe the statistical revolution…” • “He insists on doing this in a “nonmathematical” manner…” • “What results is another volume of “popular science” that holds its reader in contempt as incapable of handling complex concepts in anything like their essential form.”

  24. Review by Theodore Porter in American Scientist (2001) • “ David Salsburg aspires in this book to present statistics to a larger public and has structured his account loosely as a history. More precisely, it is a compendium of tales, the oral traditions of statistics. It relies very little on scholarly accounts, proceeding instead on the basis of what the author has picked up informally.”

  25. Review by Theodore Porter in American Scientist (2001) - continued “Unfortunately, he appears to have accepted and passed on uncritically what his interviewees told him, making no allowance for the notorious unreliability of memory and the possible unreliability of his sources.” “The book, when properly checked, may well merit a second edition.”

  26. Comment from a Student “As statisticians, we should know the history behind the techniques we use each and every day. The Lady Tasting Tea makes the history of statistics interesting and fun.”

  27. References • Salsburg, David (2001), The Lady Tasting Tea: How Statistics Revolutionized Science in the 20th Century, New York: W. H. Freeman and Company. • Senn, Stephen (2012). Tea for three: Of infustions and inferences and milk in first. Significance, 30-33.

  28. References • Ludbrook, John (2005). R. A. Fisher’s Life and Death in Australia, 1959-1962. The American Statistician, Vol. 59, No. 2, 164-165. • Whitley, Tim (2001) . Book Review of The Lady Tasting Tea by David Salsburg. Journal of Chemical Education, Vol. 78, No. 12, 1599-1600.

  29. References • Porter, Theodore (2001). Book Review of The Lady Tasting Tea by David Salsburg.American Scientist, Vol. 89, No. 5, 469-470.

  30. STA 430 – History of Statistics • Phyllis Curtiss curtissp@gvsu.edu • Kirk Anderson anderkir@gvsu.edu

  31. We give our permission to post this powerpoint for JSM • Phyllis Curtiss and Kirk Anderson

More Related