# Stat 303: The Art and Practice of Teaching Statistics ## expand\_more ![lecture](/sites/g/files/omnuum10116/files/styles/hwp_1_1__960x960_scale/public/statistics-2/files/inaugural_pickard_lecture.jpg?itok=wKr--eMJ) Katherine C. Cohen/Harvard Staff PhotographerHarvard Gazette, November 16, 2010 Stat 303, The Art and Practice of Teaching Statistics, was introduced by the Statistics Department in 2005. This course is required for all first year PhD students in the department, and each year has been co-taught by Xiao-Li Meng (former Department Chair) and a junior faculty member, with active involvement and support from the Bok Center. \[Exception: in 2010-2011, the course was taught by Joseph Blitzstein (Professor of the Practise), who co-taught the course with Xiao-Li Meng twice in previous years.\] The first goal of Stat 303 is to prepare students to be effective teaching fellows, particularly for the department's introductory courses (taken by over 800 students per year in recent years). But Stat 303 also serves a much broader purpose: teaching students how to communicate clearly and effectively, and that a deep understanding of statistical thinking -- how to "connect the dots" rather than just memorizing formulas and procedures -- is crucial both in becoming successful teachers and in becoming successful researchers. Students also learn that teaching can be fun and rewarding; learn more in this creative [video recap](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiUBSytjdX8)! Each year, Stat 303 has a special Grand Finale Lecture to conclude the year. The topics have spanned a very wide range, as seen in the abstracts below, but all have been linked by showing how to engage an audience, and by demonstrating passionate, persuasive pedagogical and intellectual insights. Sort**Date** **Speaker** **Topic** April 16, 2024 Jeff Behrends, Senior Research Scholar and Associate Senior Lecturer on Philosophy, and Director of Ethics and Technology Initiatives, The Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics; Matthew Kopec, Program Director and Lecturer, Embedded EthiCS at Harvard University [What is the Point of Ethics Education in CS? The Origins, Obstacles, and Aspirations of Embedded EthiCS](/abstracts-stat-303-grand-finale-lectures) April 18, 2023 Bharat N. Anand, Vice Provost for Advances in Learning at Harvard University and the Henry R. Byers Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School [The Future of Education: Reflections from the Front Lines](/abstracts-stat-303-grand-finale-lectures) April 26, 2022 Kelly McConville, Senior Lecturer, Department of Statistics [A Cautious Survey Statistician’s Approach to Estimation in the Age of Big Data](/abstracts-stat-303-grand-finale-lectures) April 26, 2021 Joseph Blitzstein, Professor of the Practice, Department of Statistics A Meta-Analysis of Grand Finale Lectures April 23, 2019 [Jill Lepore](https://history.fas.harvard.edu/people/jill-lepore), David Woods Kemper Professor of American History Facts, Numbers, Data: A Brief History of Evidence April 24, 2018 [D. James Greiner](https://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/10337/Greiner), Professor of Law Running Randomized Field Experiments in the Law April 25, 2017 [Shigehisa Kuriyama](https://ealc.fas.harvard.edu/people/shigehisa-kuriyama), East Asian Languages and Civilizations, and History of Science [Magic Lessons: communication as the art of illusion](/abstracts-stat-303-grand-finale-lectures#Kuriyama) April 26, 2016 [Roger B. Porter](https://www.hks.harvard.edu/about/faculty-staff-directory/roger-porter)**,** Business and Government [Presidential Decision Making: How Decisions Are Made in the White House](/abstracts-stat-303-grand-finale-lectures#Porter) April 28, 2015 [Homi Bhabha](http://english.fas.harvard.edu/faculty/bhabha/), Humanities [On Trying Not to Re-invent the Wheel](/abstracts-stat-303-grand-finale-lectures#Bhabha) April 22, 2014 [Karen Thornber](http://complit.fas.harvard.edu/people/karen-thornber), Comparative Literature [Literature and Health: Statistics, Stigmas, Struggles](/abstracts-stat-303-grand-finale-lectures#Thornber) April 23, 2013 [Alyssa Goodman](https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~agoodman/), Astronomy [Seeing More in Data](/abstracts-stat-303-grand-finale-lectures#Goodman) April 16, 2012 [Harry R. Lewis](http://people.seas.harvard.edu/~lewis/), Computer Science [Pedagogical Full Circle](/abstracts-stat-303-grand-finale-lectures#Lewis) April 25, 2011 Judith D. Singer, Education [Anatomy of a Successful Applied Statistics Course: Lessons from 25 Years of Teaching](/abstracts-stat-303-grand-finale-lectures#Singer) April 26, 2010 [Eric Mazur](http://www.physics.harvard.edu/people/facpages/mazur.html), Physics; Applied Physics [Confessions of a Converted Lecturer](/abstracts-stat-303-grand-finale-lectures#Mazur) April 27, 2009 [Allan Brandt](http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hsdept/bios/brandt.html), History of Medicine; History of Science [The Tobacco Pandemic: History, Culture, and Science](/abstracts-stat-303-grand-finale-lectures#Brandt) April 28, 2008 [Robert A. Lue](http://www.mcb.harvard.edu/Faculty/faculty_profile.php?f=robert-lue-a), Molecular and Cellular Biology [Transforming the Freshman Curriculum in the Life Sciences](/abstracts-stat-303-grand-finale-lectures#Lue) April 30, 2007 [Benedict H. Gross](http://www.math.harvard.edu/~gross/), Mathematics [Archimedes and the Area of the Circle](/abstracts-stat-303-grand-finale-lectures#Gross) May 1, 2006 [Peter K. Bol](http://scholar.harvard.edu/pkbol/home), East Asian Languages and Civilizations [Spatial Ontologies in China's Past](/abstracts-stat-303-grand-finale-lectures#Bol) ## Additional Notes - Five out of our seven celebrated [**Bok Teaching Awardees**](/bok-teaching-award) were Teaching Fellows for Stat 303. - The [**Pickard Award Lecture series**](/pickard-award), on topics in statistical teaching and pedagogy, is now underway.