Section on Statistical Education

Joy Jordan, now an associate professor of statistics, has been teaching at Lawrence University since fall 1999, after receiving her PhD from the University of Iowa and an undergraduate degree from Indiana University. Her teaching excellence has been recognized previously by (twice) winning the Allen T. Craig Award for Outstanding Teaching Assistant at Iowa and being awarded the Young Teacher Award after her third year at Lawrence. Each of her nominating letters for the Waller award referred to Joy’s "infectious enthusiasm" and "passion for teaching statistics." A former student wrote, "From the very first day, Dr. Jordan made sure the class saw that statistics was not just abstract, meaningless theorems and equations, but a subject that was relevant and that required creative thought... her creative assignments - from analyzing data on Dungeness crabs to writing computer programs to simulate data in an independent study - constantly challenged me to develop the critical thinking skills and creative thought needed to succeed as a graduate student and a statistician."

Joy has been active in research on statistics education and has shared several successful innovations in teaching elementary statistics through publications and well-received presentations. These include the use of oral feedback attached electronically to student submitted work, creative writing assignments to develop and assess student learning in statistics and her famous performances of an end-of-term statistics rap (http://www.lawrence.edu/fast/jordanj/rap.html). She has also been active within the ASA’s Section on Statistics Education, including initiating and organizing a successful mentor program to match beginning statistics instructors with experienced colleagues.

Joy Jordan's Homepage