This book is intended for use in the statistical literacy course or an introductory statistics course that emphasizes concepts over computation. The goal is to give students a conceptual understanding of statistics and develop their statistical reasoning skills. This text approaches statistics by presenting an overall picture and then providing explanation of the topics in context. Students develop an understanding of statistics that is reinforced in the exercises and web projects, and by doing some computation.
Jeff Bennett¿s academic home is the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he has been teaching on and off since 1983 and from which he received his Ph.D. in Astrophysics in 1987. During this time, he¿s taught more than 50 college courses in subjects including mathematics, astronomy, physics, environmental science, and science education. He began work on Using and Understanding Mathematics because he is particularly interested in helping students overcome difficulties with mathematics. For similar reasons, he has recently completed a textbook for introductory astronomy (The Cosmic Perspective, with M. Donahue, N. Schneider, and G.M. Voit, Addison Wesley Longman, 1999). He is also working on several books about mathematics and science for the general public. In addition, he is now working on science books for children. Jeff is perhaps best known for his role in creating the Voyage Scale Model Solar System on the National Mall in Washington, DC (opening October 2001); he proposed the project and worked on the team that developed it as a collaborative effort between the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, the Smithsonian Institution, and NASA. When not working, he enjoys participating in masters swimming and hiking the trails of Boulder, Colorado, with his family.
William L. Briggs has been on the mathematics faculty at the University of Colorado at Denver for 17 years. He teaches throughout the undergraduate and graduate curriculum with a special interest in teaching mathematical modeling as it applies to problems in biology and medicine. He developed the quantitative reasoning course for liberal arts students at CU-Denver supported by the textbook Using and Understanding Mathematics, which he co-authored with Jeff Bennett. He has written two other tutorial monographs, The Multigrid Tutorial and The DFT: An Owner's Manual for the Discrete Fourier Transform. He is a University of Colorado President's Teaching Scholar, an Outstanding Teacher awardee of the Rocky Mountain Section of the MAA, and the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to Ireland. Bill lives with his wife, Julie, his daughter, Katie, and two dogs, Midnight and Seamus, in Boulder, Colorado. He loves to bake bread, as well as run trails and rock climb in the mountains near his home.
Mario F. Triola is a Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at Dutchess Community College, where he has taught statistics for over 30 years. Marty is the author of Essentials of Statistics, Elementary Statistics Using Excel, Mathematics in the Modern World, and Survey of Mathematics. He is a co(author of Statistical Reasoning for Everyday Life, Business Statistics, and Introduction to Technical Mathematics. He designed the original STATDISK statistical software package, and he has written several manuals and workbooks for technology supporting statistics education. Outside of the classroom, Marty's consulting work includes the mathematical design of casino slot machines and fishing rods, and he has worked with attorneys in determining probabilities in paternity lawsuits, identifying salary inequities based on gender, and analyzing disputed election results. Marty has testified as an expert witness in New York State Supreme Court for an election dispute involving a former student. Marty was a recent writing team member of the Project Coalition with NASA and the American Mathematics Association of Two(Year Colleges.When he's not working, Marty enjoys travel, golf, tennis, running, hiking, and anything that flies. He has a commercial pilot's license with an instrument rating, and has flown airplanes, helicopters, sail planes, hang gliders, and hot air balloons. His passion for flying has included parachute jumps, flying in a Goodyear blimp, and parasailing.The Text and Academic Authors Association has awarded Mario F. Triola a "Texty" for Excellence for his work on Elementary Statistics.
