Explorations in Statistics Research: An Approach to Expose Undergraduates to Authentic Data Analysis

The Explorations in Statistics Research workshop is a one-week NSF-funded summer program that introduces undergraduate students to current research problems in applied statistics. The goal of the workshop is to expose students to exciting, modern applied statistical research and practice, with the ultimate aim of interesting them in seeking more training in statistics at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The program is explicitly designed to engage students in the connections between authentic domain problems and the statistical ideas and approaches needed to address these problems, which is an important aspect of statistical thinking that is difficult to teach and sometimes lacking in our methodological courses and programs. Over the past 9 years, we ran the workshop six times and a similar program in the sciences two times. We describe the program, summarize feedback from participants, and identify the key features to its success. We abstract these features and provide a set of recommendations for how faculty can incorporate important elements into their regular courses. [Received December 2014. Revised June 2015.]