AP Statistics classes to attend career fair
October 17, 2008
By Sara Rogers
<srogers@hilite.org>
On Nov. 4, AP Statistics students, including senior Alexandria “Allie” Weller, will have the opportunity to get out of the classroom and go on a field trip to the IUPUI Statistics Career Day on the IUPUI campus.
“I think the field trip will be interesting; I’d like to see how statistics is used in the real world,” Weller said.
IUPUI annually hosts the Statistics Career Day for high school and college students, as well as teachers and parents.
“The whole purpose is to bring in speakers from different fields to show how statistics is involved,” AP Statistics teacher Matt Wernke said.
Around six speakers come to the campus to deliver short presentations about their career and how it relates to statistics. Along with the speakers, companies, colleges and other groups give out information on different career choices and options with relevance to statistics. Students can ask questions and interact with professionals currently working in career fields they wish to pursue.
The field trip is one way Wernke said he helps alter the “boring” stereotype associated with statistics. “I think math is exciting on its own in the fact that it deals with real world data,” he said. “It applies to nearly every career field such as engineering, physics, pharmacy, biology and business.”
Wernke also provides real-world data for students to analyze during class to help keep them interested and to portray the subject as more than just graphs and numbers.
Weller said, “I think that statistics is like any class, it’s only boring if you make it that way. I try hard to keep focused and pay attention in class so I can maintain a good grade, so that leaves little room for boredom.”
Weller’s class analyzed the relationships between SAT scores and GPA to help students see how people use statistics in the real world.
“In class we have used a program called TI Interactive on the computers which allows us to look at graphs and data in a new way,” Weller said.
Nicholas “Nick” Pearson, AP Statistics student and junior, said his teacher is also making an effort to make the math course more intriguing and interesting.
He said, “(My teacher) has tried to make class more interesting by showing us videos of some of the lessons we’re learning (as opposed to) lecturing.”
According to Wernke, concepts learned in statistics can be applicable to real-life scenarios.
“The biggest misconception is that the only field that uses math is math and the only field that uses statistics is statistics, which isn’t true,” Wernke said.
Although students often label statistics as a boring class, the IUPUI Statistics Career Day field trip gives students the opportunity to relate the subject to life outside of the classroom. “Statistics are used everywhere,” Wernke said. “It’s really not just boring.”
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