First, I saw Andrew Gelman's rant about "big bad education" (link) which leads me to Mark Palko's rant about teaching "the Law of Large Numbers" in the new "Common Core" curriculum for New York schools. Mark's conclusion being: If we start talking about setting aside significant time to cover probability and statistics accurately and in reasonable depth and put the ideas in proper context, you have my enthusiastic support, but…
Imagine Magazine, a youth-focused journal by Johns Hopkins's Center of Talented Youth, invited me to contribute an article in celebration of statistics. I try to convey the fun and joy of working with numbers and charts. You can read it...
There was a lively, fun discussion after my talk yesterday night in New York. For those who couldn't attend, let me review some of the conversation. Here you go: Q: Tell us more about the chapter in Numbersense titled "Are They New Jobs When No One Can Apply?" Related to economic data, can you talk about the idea that we still need to import foreign workers because there aren't enough…
Yesterday, Larry Cahoon, a 29-year veteran at the Census Bureau, answered some questions. The rest of the interview is printed below. *** KF: How can a data analyst improve his or her skills? LC: I have to say my best training has been many, many hours of just playing with statistics, playing with graphics, and reading the analysis others have done. The more data I see, the more analysis I…
Reader Andrew C. was unhappy about the following stacked bar chart, published by Teach for America, touting its diversity. (link) The lightning symbol that splits apart the Caucasian bar is a harbinger of trouble. For the designer deployed seven different...
Here are links to coverage of Numbersense. David Walker and I debate whether statisticians should be a part of Big Data in Significance. (link - requires registration). Significance is a joint publication of the Royal Statistical Society and the American Statistical Association, and a great source of applied statistics. Walker fears Big Data is pure froth while I outline several problems in which statisticians can play a key role. Princeton…
Robert Kosara takes us back to the 1940s, and an incredible "infographics" project by the Lawrence Livermoore Laboratory. (link) Here is one of the designs: Kosara laments: When did information graphics turn into ‘infographics,’ and when did we lose the...
Readers of my books will not be surprised to hear that I am a fan of the case method in teaching. The case method was pioneered by Harvard Law School in 1870, and I was exposed to it at Harvard Business School, where it is used to teach everything from marketing to leadership, and from economics to operations, and even accounting. Since the 1920s, the case method replaced the "lecture…
One of my summer projects is to develop the curriculum for a new Certificate in Analytics and Data Visualization, offered at NYU (link). (If you are interested in teaching these courses, please contact me.) The program aims to give students...
Dona Wong asked me to comment on a project by the New York Fed visualizing funding and expenditure at NY and NJ schools. The link to the charts is here. You have to click through to see the animation. Here...
