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Introductory Statistics Honors Course
- Dr. Nancy Pfenning teaches has been teaching Honors Applied Statistical Methods for 8 years which is designed to develop students' critical thinking skills and awareness of how statistical methods are applied in a variety of disciplines.
- Students investigate applications of statistics in their own areas of personal interest and give 15 minute talks on journal articles which reference statistical methods learned in class.
- In this seminar style course, students must embrace that they are not only responsible for their own learning, but also responsible for the learning of the rest of the group.
Honors Statistics in Journalism
- Dr. Nancy Pfenning co-taught this course with Cindy Skrzycki from the English department.
- The course focuses on helping students understand the weaknesses and inaccuracies that can occur when journalists present statistical results, and statistics is used and misused in science-based news.
- In the first part of the course, students critique popular news articles in major publications to develop an understanding of the shortcomings of shallow reporting. In the second part, students write a news article based on recently published research.
- For more information, see Just the Facts?, an article about this course published in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
- Also, more information about the course, search STAT 1000.