Athens, Ga. – The American Statistical Association recently presented its Founders Award to Christine Franklin, the Lothar Tresp Honoratus Honors Professor in the University of Georgia Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of statistics.
The ASA is the nation’s preeminent professional statistical society, and the honor is presented annually to ASA members who have rendered distinguished and long-term service to the association. Franklin was honored during the presidential awards session at the 2014 Joint Statistical Meetings in Boston.
One of three recipients of the Founders Award in 2014, Franklin was recognized for her leadership in curriculum development and teaching statistics, her research and her professional service in helping grow the field of statistics education. An active member of ASA, Franklin is a longtime leader and champion of national efforts in statistics education, particularly in the area of implementing statistics in K-12 education.
“Statistics integrated into the K-12 curriculum is key for students developing the statistical reasoning skills necessary to make sense of the massive data that surrounds them on a daily basis, much of which students generate themselves,” said Franklin, who also serves as the undergraduate coordinator for statistics at UGA.
“We live in a very data-centric world-not just numbers, but dynamic, complex and highly structured collections of pictures and sounds-and we’re starting to see the importance of teaching and learning statistics at earlier grade levels.”
Franklin also received a 2014-15 Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program grant. She will travel to New Zealand and work with faculty at the University of Auckland from February to June 2015 to assess the country’s national standards and compare practices in K-12 statistics education with those in the U.S.
“New Zealand is a few years ahead of us at implementing statistics at the K-12 levels, stemming from efforts begun there in the early 2000s,” Franklin said. “Much like my delight and surprise about this award from ASA, the opportunity to work with the leaders in statistics education through the Fulbright program is really a professional dream come true. I am honored and excited about the opportunity.”
For more information on the department of statistics, see http://www.stat.uga.edu/.