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Seminar: Nick Horton, Amherst College, "Better Data Tools Foster Better Data Science Education"

Nov 28, 2022 - 11:00 AM
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Dr. Horton

Speaker: Nick Horton, Amherst College, "Better Data Tools Foster Better Data Science Education"

Location: Zoom

Abstract: The growth of data science education has been remarkable, with many developments at the school and college/university level. Students are developing data literacy, data fluency, and data acumen early and often. Prior work (e.g., Biehler, 1997; McNamara, 2019) has explored what makes a statistical tool effective for teaching. In this talk, I will explore the landscape of data science tools, how they can help develop the capacity for students to "think with data", and how they need to be improved.

About the speaker: Dr. Horton is Beitzel Professor of Technology and Society (Statistics and Data Science) at Amherst College. He is passionate about improving quantitative and computational literacy for students with a variety of backgrounds and has worked to deepen engagement and mastery of higher-level concepts and data acumen. Nick is the editor of the Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education, served as the co-chair of the Planning Committee for the NASEM Workshop on K-12 Data Science, co-PI of the NSF-funded Data Science Corps Wrangle/Analyze/Visualize project, and as chair of the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies. He was a member of the Roundtable on Data Science Postsecondary Education, and was a member of the NASEM (2018) Data Science for Undergraduates consensus study team. Presently he serves as co-chair of the NASEM Committee on Applied and Theoretical Statistics. Dr. Horton has published more than 190 papers in statistics and biomedical research and four books on statistical computing and data science. He has been the recipient of a number of teaching awards and the American Statistical Association Founders Award. Dr. Horton is a fellow of the American Statistical Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.