#6 Math vs. Stats

Math vs. Stats

This last week in class we talked a lot of statistics and the standards that middle school students have that involve stats. During this time we got into the age old debate of is stats math.

Personally I do not think that stats is math. That may just be because of my terrifying time spent in STA 312. However, I think that if we take a step back and look at the definitions of these words we can see that they really are very different.

Mathematics- the abstract science of number, quantity, and space. Mathematics may be studied in its own right (pure mathematics), or as it is applied to other disciplines such as physics and engineering (applied mathematics)

Statistics-  the practice or science of collecting and analyzing numerical data in large quantities, especially for the purpose of inferring proportions in a whole from those in a representative sample.

When we look purely at the definitions we see some similarities as well as some differences. Some similarities are the words science and quantity. The differences are just about everything else. And so when you think about it the only thing math and stats seem to have in common is that they both deal with numbers. So would you say that basketball is the same as football because they both deal with a ball?

While this is something that we often talk about in the math center I figured we couldn't be the only ones and so I found a cool blog post written by a stats grad student about how the world views those with math degrees compared to stats degrees. (Blog) She talks about how she was initially was studying math and then changed to study stats. I think that she makes a lot of good points how how the world differentiates these people. I also think that it is odd how people often say that math and stats are the same thing and yet people said vastly different things when she told them she was studying stats compared to studying math.

However, as much as I know that while those who understand one or the other may say they are vastly different, the rest of the people who do not like or understand math and stats will continue to say they are the same. This being said I know that in most public schools math classes often have a few stats standards that they need to cover as well. And so maybe they aren't so different after all, at least according to the policy makers.

#5 --- the 5e's

In my earth science teaching class we talk about how lessons should involve the 5e's:
engage, explore, explain, elaborate, evaluate. This is something that I think could be helpful when it comes to planning math lessons as well. In fact I think that this is something many math teachers already do...

ENGAGE: this what we call the warm up in math, the only difference in science is that it generally leads to discussion where as in math it is generally a review. This is something I think could be improved. Warm ups are often thought of as a way to get the students brains working again and thinking about math. I think that sparking a discussion could be helpful to not only get students in the mind set to do math but to also talk about it.

EXPLORE: This is something that I think needs to become more apparent in math. Having students discover the information is something that is often done in science but rarely done in math. I think that there should be "labs" in math as there is in science. This would allow the students to move and work on real world problems. This way students might be able to understand that this information can be useful in the real world and make the class more fun.

EXPLAIN: Another topic that is generally over looked in Math. We often tell students about equations and formulas without explaining why they are the way they are. I think students could benefit from knowing why they do things and not just how to do them.

ELABORATE: This step is the one that is often pushed on to the students as homework. This means students generally do a few problems in class and then have some to do at home. The problem I always had with this was that the problems we do in class are simply and generally stick to the pattern of whatever we are learning in class. Then when the students get home that is when things get tricky. This is something that I think teachers need to change a little bit, students often struggle with the work they are supposed to be doing outside of class.

Evaluate: This is obviously something that is frequently done in math and all subjects.

And so I think that it is important to think about using the information you learned in other classes and bringing it to the table when it comes to talking about math.