Mutlu and Barker participate in 2018 NCMATYC Conference

Asli Mutlu and Heather Barker participated in the 30th annual North Carolina Mathematical Association of Two Year Colleges (NCMATYC) Conference which was held March 8-9, 2018 at Carteret Community College in Morehead City, NC. Both Asli and Heather have experience teaching statistics to community college students. Often statistics instructors at community colleges may be the only one teaching statistics, so conferences such as NCMATYC are an important way to help alleviate feelings of isolation and help further professional development for these instructors.

Barker has been a member of NCMATYC since 2010 and has served on the executive board for NCMATYC since 2014. This was the fourth conference that she has helped organize. NCMATYC was a critical part of her professional development as a mathematics and statistics instructor, so being able to serve on the board and give back to the organization has been a very meaningful part of her career. This is her last year serving on the board. She plans on staying active in the organization and plans on sharing her experiences in Hi-Rise to the members of NCMATYC at future conferences.

Heather Barker (right) with Glynis Mullins, past president of NCMATYC

Asli Mutlu led a session titled Informal Inferential Statistics. During her session she led attendees through a hands-on activity using CODAP. The hands-on activity presented was intended to help students in an introductory statistics course draw informal inferences and connect these ideas to formal inferential reasoning concepts. The activity was adapted from one that is used in the first e-Module in the ESTEEM project. Participants of the session had not used CODAP before but felt that it would be useful to help with instruction for introductory statistics courses.

Asli Mutlu presenting at NCMATYC conference

The keynote speaker of the conference was George Woodbury of the College of the Sequoias. His talk, titled Statistics – Then and Now, showcased the way that technology has changed the way we teach statistics. He shared examples of how to incorporate simulation, randomization, and bootstrapping into introductory statistics courses. Mutlu’s presentation followed directly after his speech, giving attendees even more incentive to explore new technologies such as CODAP.