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RE: [ap-stat] AP Stats vs. AP Calc
Posted:
Oct 6, 2011 3:45 PM
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I taught AP Stats and AP Calculus (both AB and BC) for many years before becoming full-time college faculty. At ASU I teach an intro stats course, calculus for business and calculus for engineers. I would love for qualified high school students to take both AP courses but that might not be a choice.
Students are generally better prepared for AP Calc since they have take two years of algebra and a pre-cal course. Other than a look at some descriptive statistics, most students have little preparation for AP Stats.
The objective of calculus is the correct answer. The objective of stats is a justification of what was done and an explanation of what it means. While many counselors and high school teachers took a stats course that emphasized formulas and answers, they have not been exposed to the beauty and relevance of AP Stats.
If a student was planning to major in chem, physics, engineering, computer science, etc., I would recommend AP Calculus taken at the BC level. For those going into business, the social or biological sciences, AP stats would be my recommendation.
Many years ago, before AP Stats existed, I had a student who had straight Cs in high school math before she took my spring semester stats course. She told me that stats was not a math course because it made sense and was relevant. She got a 99 in my course and as a Spanish major, minored in statistics.
One ploy I used was to have one of my AP Stats projects be a group project with a presentation required. I would invite selected counselors, teachers and administrators to the presentations and they were generally impressed.
Murray
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