Until 1999–2000, Statistics was presented at the very beginning of the year for both grade levels, thus preventing the sharing of textbooks. In addition, this Statistics serves as the basis for further usage by our grade nine students in their Arts and Science EXPO practice project in the fall and for the real EXPO/ISEF project in the spring. These EXPO projects have been run intermittantly under the ISEF rules since 1994–95 so original research is required. Further, a tenth of each semester examination for grades nine and ten has been over Descriptive Statistics. Thus, we have encouraged the students to retain the textbooks for reference all year.
The year I started, the 1993–94 school-year, was the first year the Center had grade eleven students. Their experience in grade ten, never knowing which textbook they would use any given day, pushed me to use one textbook for them for all year. That Precalculus textbook by Foerster also covers Statistics. My second year, in addition to adding AP Calculus AB as our normal grade twelve level class and participating in contests, we started "tracking" or accelerating students beyond our normally accelerated program. Furthermore, some students inevitably start our program other than at the beginning. Since such transitions could occur at various times in our sequence, in my third year, all the review, including Statistics, was moved into the first 9-weeks of our normal junior (Precalculus) course. (Note, since 1999, sophomore and junior statisitics occur at year's end thus making transitions difficult.)
Also my first year, we purchased a set of Triola 5th edition and used them for grade ten. Grade nine were stuck with some raggedy 4th edition books. For 1995–96 we upgraded grade ten to the 6th edition and trickled those 5th editions down to grade nine. Those 6th edition books were a disaster: even mine falling apart within weeks; no answer key; and I didn't have any appreciation for his changes. These textbooks being college level also meant many of the examples were really not suitable for our high school audience. Also, the author being a social scientist, had a penchant for examples involving murder and other mayhem. My long-range goal is to have more examples involving science. Several things were presented in a manner which was not very understandable to our bright students (forming classes), changed between editions (outliers), or were at variance with what the calculators did (hinges). Since for my first four years I used different editions for the two grade levels, these differences became very apparent to me. I also quickly realized how closely we could tie the Statistics together with my number and Algebra review and calculator training (all students are required to have a TI-series graphing calculator, current recommendation is the TI-84+ but we started using the TI-89 for Calculus in 1998–99). This becomes especially apparent for students joining our program as sophomores or especially as juniors.
The expansion also forced upon us two sections at each grade level in addition to the different course being taught at the same time within one classroom due to "tracking". This forced us out of the mode where one teacher taught all students and great care was then given to ensure fairness in material covered and tested. Roberto Ordóñez taught the other Grade 9 Mathematics section in the 1997–98 school-year and we worked together to teach Summer Algebra before that in August. He also taught one section of Computer Science to our grade nine students and served as an inspiration to expand my web-based lectures, even if little became of it that year due to other distractions.
For the 1998–99 school-year, Andrews University hired Aurora Burdick to teach a section of grade nine Mathematics and a section of grade ten mathematics. Her background was very unknown to me and she also could not start until late August. However, we were also able to hire Shirleen Luttrell as an assistant in June 1998. A feasibility study for this web-based series of lectures and textbook replacement was one of her first responsibilities. This also served to train her in as to what material I considered important.
For the 1999–2000 school-year, I team taught freshmen with Ms. Luttrell, while team teaching sophomores with Ms. Burdick. We eventually were able to revise the August 1997 Thomas definition of team teaching (common gradebook, common syllabus, common tests—cowritten, all exceptions cross authorized, grades assigned in common, etc.) and are then were only bound to the common syllabus and common cowritten tests being 50% of the grade. Classes continue somewhat in lock-step, but each teacher has additional freedom for quizzes, extra credit, grade assignment, etc. Additional changes starting in 1999–2000 school-year led to the probabability and distribution lectures on the web and the first offering of AP Statistics in the county. That year I taught AP Statistics to a dozen out-of-sequence juniors. This was preceeded by my spending three weeks in North Carolina with fifty of the best AP Statisitics teachers in the country. The six students who took the AP test all passed with a three or better (two fours and a five). (We later learned that St. Joseph offered AP Statistics that year.)
The elementary concepts of Statistics have direct and practical applications to a wide variety of situations. More colleges are requiring Statistics than Calculus, but all Center students are expected to complete Calculus and the AP Statistics course seemed like a one-shot. However, three students (Matt S., Mike P., Eric W.) took Statistics, often through their home school before the the 2003–04 school-year was over. Ten students took AP Statistics in 2004–05.
Mathematics on the web has been slow to develop. As a TEX user since 1988, I've been disappointed with my options. However, IBM's Hypermedia Techexplorer holds promise and is being tried. The introductary edition does not support printing and through June 1998 the professional version was not available. When it did arrive, the professional version would not print TEX unless the page was all TEX—I was very disappointed. GIF images from seven point TEX converted into BMP have been created for most of our formulae as a result. There are other options which we explored (such as PDFTEX), while finishing my disseration, but they have their limitations. Bear with us as these aspects are resolved.
I offer my thanks to Sally, founder/director, and Mr. Lundgren, subsequent director of the Berrien County Math and Science Center; as well as thanks to Roberto Ordóñez and Aurora Burdick. A special thanks goes to Shirleen, without whom these web-based lectures would never have gotten off the ground. Her diligence in doing the little things to keep the Center running smoothly allowed me more time to keep the ball rolling on developing these and other lectures.
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