# Harvard Statistics Participates in Public School Outreach Programs
December 18, 2024
Entering Hall D in the Harvard Science Center, I met a volley of questions, “Do you study inequality in society? Do you like programming?” Unfortunately, the answer was no, but I could point the students to another Harvard volunteer. Students from the John D. O’Bryant School of Math & Science, Brighton High School, and the [StatStart Program](https://hsph.harvard.edu/department/biostatistics/) had just arrived for the 3rd annual Data Adventure Day (known as “Florence Nightingale Day” in its first year), sponsored by Harvard Statistics and Biostatistics Departments and the Harvard Data Science Initiative.
Data Adventure Day (DAD), an all-day event on November 8th with statistics and data science related activities for ~120 high school students (as well as ~50 teachers and volunteers), is part of our Department’s commitment to pursuing [equity, diversity, and inclusion](/equity-diversity-inclusion-and-belonging-committee) goals by connecting our faculty and students with youth from Boston and Cambridge. In addition, some of our faculty and students have participated in [Project Teach](https://projectteach.community.harvard.edu/), a Harvard program that partners with Boston public middle schools to provide exposure to college through on campus activities. By participating in Project Teach and hosting [Data Adventure Day](/event/data-adventure-day-held-harvard-university-science-center?delta=0), our department aims to encourage a future generation of students to pursue statistics, data science, and related fields and to foster greater diversity in these fields. Now let’s take a closer look at the impact of these initiatives!
## **Hands-on Introduction to Statistics at Data Adventure Day:**
While the trivia activity in Hall D was an icebreaker, it also gave students the opportunity to learn about a diverse group of statisticians. Students identified and answered questions about various headshots positioned around the room – from David Blackwell, the first African American full professor at UC Berkeley, to Florence Nightingale, who convinced Queen Victoria to improve sanitation in hospitals, to Joy Buolamwini, who researches how algorithms encode racial and gender bias. Students’ hands-on learning continued when they visited Harvard’s Museum of Natural History to investigate fun data facts (e.g., a specimen from the deepest part of the ocean) and to search for interesting stories about how scientists are collecting data.
## **Connecting to College Life at Data Adventure Day:**
After the visit to the museum, high school students attended a college panel moderated by Data Adventure Day Planning Committee members Oscar Mercado (Senior Statistics Concentrator) and Rebecca Hurwitz (Biostatistics Master’s alum), which highlighted the college experience of three panelists with different personal backgrounds, avenues into statistics, and career goals. They heard from Ace Mejía-Sánchez, a Senior Statistics and Government Concentrator who developed an interest in pursuing data science applications in the nonprofit sector, as well as from Raihana Rahman, a Junior Mathematics and Statistics Concentrator who discovered her passion for studying the theory behind stats and math, and Aseel Rawashdeh, a Junior Statistics and Computer Science Concentrator. Reacting to the panel, student Kevin Dang shared, “DAD was fun, especially having the opportunity to talk to Harvard students and learn about their experience in college. Learning about the nuanced applications of stats opened my mind to new potential job prospects for myself.” The panelists similarly found their exchange with the high school students to be rewarding. Summing up the value of participating in Data Adventure Day, Rahman reflected, “It's important for me to find ways to volunteer with local Boston communities and work with students, who (like me) are underrepresented in statistics; DAD, specifically the panel, gave me the opportunity to do just that!”
## **Exploring Real-World Applications at Data Adventure Day:**
The day culminated in two activities that highlighted the real-world applications of statistics and data science. Some students participated in an activity designed by Paul Schwein at [LabXchange](https://www.labxchange.org/), a nonprofit organization created at Harvard University that develops digital STEM lessons and materials for classrooms. Through an activity focused on data related to music trends, students learned how data visualizations shape the story that the data tells. For example, students looked at the [rankings of music genres](https://pudding.cool/2023/10/genre/) between 2016 and 2024 and discussed how the creation (or deletion) of genres might change or leave gaps in the interpretation of genre popularity over time. Students then reviewed a [graph](https://pudding.cool/projects/vocabulary/index.html) displaying the range of rapper vocabulary, which led to questions such as, “Is there a relationship between the amount of words a rapper typically uses in their songs and their era or between the amount of words and their net worth?”
The second activity consisted of interactive presentations with Harvard researchers, faculty, PhD students, and alums on applications of statistics in their daily work. Presenters from our department included faculty Lucas Janson, Associate Professor, Kevin Rader, Senior Preceptor, and Joe Blitzstein, Professor of the Practice, as well as PhD student Yuzhou Lin, and AB alum Ethan Kahn. The topics illustrated the exciting breadth of statistics and data science applications, including research on the global burden of disease, gun violence causes in the US, the death toll in Puerto Rico from hurricane Maria, drug treatment effects in clinical trials, and sports analytics. Describing a highlight of the presentations, Blitzstein shared, “Rafa Irizarry's presentation on Hurricane Maria was very engaging and showcased high impact work, and there was a great Q&A with students afterwards.” While presenters explained how they apply statistical methods to their field, they also shared their personal journeys, backgrounds, and growing pains, such as learning that it’s okay to move on from job or career choice that is a bad fit. After attending the presentations, student Begine Derilien reflected on the activity: “I really liked the panel of different statisticians because it made me realize that, yes, stats is useful in real life. It's not another math class where you're wondering how will this help me in the future? The panel helped me understand the importance of stats in our daily life and future careers.”
## **Diving into Statistics with Middle School Students at Project Teach:**
Plunk, plunk, plunk. Several hacky-sacks flew through the air and into a bucket in swift succession; a middle school student, a participant in Project Teach, grinned with satisfaction. Pausing the activity, the instructor, Lucas Janson, explained to students that this exercise was not just fun and games but was also an entry-point to thinking about how to collect and ask questions about data. Janson elaborated, “If you wanted to identify your favorite food or Tik Tok star, then you’d have to try out different options and write down your findings.” He shared other examples, including sports team owners making decisions about players based on performance stats, Chat GPT generating recommendations based on internet data, and medical researchers determining the effectiveness of a treatment based on survival rates.
“So, is Lucas good at hacky-sack-bucket?” asked Janson as he tossed several hacky-sacks and landed one in the bucket on his third try. After conferring with each other, students agreed to test out Janson’s mastery of the game by having all students record their number of tosses before reaching the bucket and then comparing their average results with Janson’s. The results? On average, the students performed better than Janson, demonstrating that Janson was, unfortunately, not so good at hacky-sack-bucket! Through this hands-on activity for Project Teach, students gained valuable experience with formulating a question, designing an experiment, collecting the data, and using statistics to analyze the data.
## **Evaluating Data Visualizations at Project Teach:**
In another Project Teach classroom, Julie Vu, Preceptor in Statistics, displayed a [graph](https://informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/best-in-show-whats-the-top-data-dog/) with multi-colored dog figures located in four quadrants: “hot dogs” (popular with the general population as well as highly rated by dog experts), “overlooked treasures” (not popular but highly rated by dog experts), “the rightly ignored” (neither popular nor highly rated by dog experts), and “inexplicably overrated” (popular but not highly rated by dog experts). Turning to her middle school audience, Vu asked students what they noticed about the organization of the graph, the x/y axis, the labels, and the datapoints. “What story is the graph trying to tell us about these dogs?” asked Vu, “and do you think that it does a good job?” In response, students argued for both the benefits and detractors of the graph; some students thought that it was creative and engaging while others thought that it was cluttered with information and confusing. After debating the effectiveness of this graph, students turned their attention to graphs posted throughout the room, which they marked with a sticker (a blue star for the most memorable graph, a yellow star for most informative, and a red frowny face for most confusing). In the group discussion that followed, students explained their reasoning behind their assessments, honing their skill at identifying and evaluating the choices made in these data visualizations.
From learning to evaluate data visualizations, to learning to develop questions about data, to connecting statistics and data science to real-world applications and careers, students participating in Project Teach and Data Adventure Day had the opportunity to see first-hand the power of statistical thinking. Our hope is that these students and the students that we host in future years harness their experiences at Harvard, as well as opportunities in their schools and communities, to pursue careers in statistics and data science and to see the value of data-driven analysis in their daily lives (regardless of their career path). We look forward to hosting another Data Adventure Day next year and future collaboration with Project Teach!
Image by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard University:
Image by Margaret Yin:
Image by Dayanara Torres: 
Image by Dayanara Torres: 
## **Refence List:**
Daniels, Matt and Pera-McGhee, Michelle. “You should look at this chart about music genres.” *The Pudding*, 2023,
Daniels, Matt. “The Largest Vocabulary In Hip Hop.” *The Pudding*, January 21, 2019,
McCandless, David. “Best in Show: The Ultimate Data Dog.” *Information is beautiful*, 2024,