“But statistics is also math…” 🤯 (engineer friend)
“Statistics is SO hard!” 👦🏻 (a kid)
“My husband is great at math – but he’s scratching his head when it comes to teaching statistics to our kid.” 🤦🏻♀️ (mom friend)
These recent comments got me thinking – statistics really is a different beast! Technically, statistics is a branch of mathematics that deals with the collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of numerical data – nowadays, very large datasets. While that sounds pretty straightforward, learning statistics for most people seems anything but straightforward. And let's be honest, statistics lessons can make some folks fall asleep.
I remember my high school statistics classes, where I was one of the few brave souls venturing into the world of data and probabilities. It wasn’t exactly the most popular subject! As someone who was “good at math,” learning statistics felt like a paradigm shift. It meant quantifying uncertainty, pondering odds ratios and adding endless caveats to answers. (Also, “why do I need to calculate the probability of drawing a blue bead three times in a row without replacement??”) However, in my adult life, statistics became the foundation of my career in analytics, data science, and quantitative research.
Fast forward to today, I'm excited by the idea of introducing statistical thinking to kids. It’s all about building the right math foundations and being creative in explaining concepts in ways kids can understand. I don’t have all the answers yet, but this is the motivation behind my latest experimental book project: ABC’s of Statistics… with Cats. It’s experimental because I’m taking an unconventional approach to publishing it – releasing a page weekly on my Instagram handle datasciencemom and sharing extra content here on Substack.
All for free.
So if this sounds like your kind of fun or you find the idea fascinating (or a little crazy), I’d love for you to follow along. I’ll be asking for feedback along the way to make this journey more interactive, so stay tuned!
P.S. Also, why cats? I don’t know. I just like them.