Statistics: The Art And Science of Learning from Data

For algebra-based Introductory Statistics Courses.

The overarching goal of this text is to empower students to be statistical thinkers

Alan Agresti and Chris Franklin have merged their research expertise, as well as their extensive real-world and teaching experience, to develop a new introductory statistics text that makes students statistically literate, while encouraging them to ask and answer interesting statistical questions. The authors have successfully crafted a text that takes the ideas that have turned statistics into a central science in modern life and makes them accessible and engaging to students without compromising necessary rigor.

The varied and data-rich examples and exercises place heavy emphasis on thinking about and understanding statistical concepts.  The applications are topical and current and successfully illustrate the relevance of statistics.

The authors understand that most of the real-world data that students encounter outside the class room are categorical data.  Unlike many texts at this level, Agresti/Franklin incorporates categorical data where appropriate and draws distinctions between theory and practical application of statistical ideas and methods.

The text was written, from the ground up, to embrace and support the 6 recommendations of the ASA endorsed GAISE (Guidelines for Assessment for Instruction in Statistical Education) Report - http://www.amstat.org/education/gaise/GAISECollege.htm:

• Emphasize statistical literacy and develop statistical thinking.
• Use real data.
• Stress conceptual understanding rather than mere knowledge of procedures.
• Foster active learning in the classroom.
• Use technology for developing  concepts and analyzing data.
• Use assessment to evaluate and improve student learning.

Comes with a CD containing data sets, additional activities, and applets.  The CD with the IE, furthermore, includes Instructor-to-Instructor videos which further detail, by chapter, the authors approach and provides suggestions on how to present concepts. These Instructor-to-Instructor videos are very complimentary to the IE chapter introductions.

Alan Agresti is Distinguished Professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of Florida. He has been teaching statistics there for 30 years, including the development of three courses in statistical methods for social science students and three courses in categorical data analysis. He is author of over 100 refereed article and four texts including "Statistical Methods for the Social Sciences" (with Barbara Finlay, Prentice Hall, 3rd edition 1997) and "Categorical Data Analysis" (Wiley, 2nd edition 2002). He is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and recipient of an Honorary Doctor of Science from De Montfort University in the UK. In 2003 he was named "Statistician of the Year" by the Chicago chapter of the American Statistical Association and in 2004 he was the first honoree of the Herman Callaert Leadership Award in Biostatistical Education and Dissemination awarded by the University of Limburgs, Belgium. He has held visiting positions at Harvard University, Boston University, London School of Economics, and Imperial College and has taught courses or short courses for universities and companies in about 20 countries worldwide. He has also received teaching awards from UF and an excellence in writing award from John Wiley & Sons.

Christine Franklin is a Lecturer and Honors Professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of Georgia. She is beginning her 16th year at UGA, her 25th year as college faculty in statistics. Chris has been actively involved at the national level with promoting statistical education at the K-12 level and college undergraduate level since the 1980's. Her involvement with the AP Statistics program includes preparing teachers to teach AP Statistics and serving as a table leader at the AP Statistics readings since 1997. She also conducts College Board workshops and in 1998, began teaching a new course at UGA that she designed for secondary math teachers. Her most recent course development has been a new master's level course in probability and statistics for K-8 teachers. Much of the development of these courses was based on her involvement serving as a statistical advisor for the 2000 NCTM Principles and Standards of Mathematics. She is also the undergraduate coordinator in the Statistics department at UGA and is presently working to restructure the undergraduate statistics major.

Chris has found her most challenging educational role to be serving as Chairperson of her local school district's Board of Education. This has also been a very rewarding experience, especially working with teachers in her system and with the curriculum and instruction.

Most important for Chris is her family. Her husband, Dale Green, is a physician. They have two boys, Corey (a junior in high school and taking AP Statistics this year) and Cody (a fourth grader). Her most recent memorable experience was backpacking for 11 days in Philmont, NM with her older son and the boy scouts.