Newest CHANCE Issue Covers Education,
History, Engaging Conversations

The September issue of CHANCE focuses on education, history, and stimulating discussion as an array of articles delve into topics ranging from classroom techniques to historical figures in statistics, all while encouraging reader engagement through thoughtful contributions.

Spotlight on Education
With the start of the school year, this issue highlights several articles relevant to educators and students. In the Taking a Chance in the Classroom column, Kicab Castaneda-Mendez presents a thought-provoking article titled “Puzzling Probabilities of Probability Puzzles,” inviting readers to explore unique aspects of probability in an intriguing and challenging way.

Ashley Petersen’s article, “Incorporating Inclusive Teaching Practices into (Bio)statistics Courses,”  emphasizes the importance of inclusive teaching practices, offering strategies that educators can adopt to ensure students from all backgrounds feel supported and empowered.

The issue also features “The Illusion of Randomness: Evaluating Student Sampling Performance”  by Wenqi Zeng and coauthors. It explores how students interpret randomness by engaging them in a visual sampling task. The study reveals interesting insights into how students click on points in various shapes, some of which include optical illusions. Teachers will find the accompanying R code and materials helpful for replicating this experiment with their own students.

Encouraging Dialogue: Letters to the Editor 
A highlight of this issue is the return of the Letters to the Editor column, the first since April 2022. One of the letters responds to “Strange Expectations: A Dickens of a Problem,”  an article featured in the April 2024 issue of CHANCE. The goal of this column is to foster respectful debate and thoughtful conversations among readers, and this letter exemplifies that intent.

Another letter comes from Stephen Senn and William Rosenberger in response to Stephen Ziliak’s “Letter to a Young Statistician: On ‘Student’ and the Lanarkshire Milk Experiment,”  published in February 2024. Senn and Rosenberger offer further insights into the topic, expanding the discussion on this historical experiment.

Book Reviews and Sports Analytics
This issue also features four detailed book reviews. Two of the reviews are written by the Book Reviews  column editor, Christian Robert, while guest reviewers Eric-Jan Wagenmakers, Gaurav Sood, and Andrew Gelman provide reviews for the remaining titles. These books cover a wide range of topics, from statistical theory to practical applications, making them valuable resources for readers at all levels.

For those with an interest in sports, the first Beyond the Box Score column under the current editorial team is sure to intrigue. Adriana Gonzalez Sanchez and her coauthors take on the question of whether “icing the kicker” in the NFL—a tactic in which coaches call a timeout right before a field goal attempt—affects the kicker’s performance. The column offers an in-depth look at this common strategy in football and its effectiveness.

Honoring the Past: Historical Perspectives
This issue also includes tributes to two significant figures in the history of statistics. The History Chronicles column remembers Peter Armitage, who passed away this year at the age of 99. Armitage is renowned for his contributions to clinical trial design and his work on sequential analysis and decision criteria.

Additionally, the article “Remembering Ralph B. D’Agostino Sr.” celebrates the life and career of the prominent statistician known for his contributions to nonparametric statistics, the design of clinical trials, and cardiovascular research through his role in the Framingham Heart Study. Colleagues and family members share their memories and insights into his impactful career.

Also included in the history section is an article titled “How to Model It: Polya’s Forgotten Lesson Transcribed for Statistics and Data Science,” which revisits George Polya’s problem-solving principles and focuses on how these ideas could be effectively integrated into statistics and data science education today.

Exploring Ethical Dilemmas and Personal Experiments
Finally, there are two articles examining experiments related to ethics and personal growth. Moinak Bhaduri’s article, "Do We Let Businesses Get Away with Dodgy Ethics and Loose Morals?,”  uses Markov random fields to explore the differences in what matters most to conservative- and liberal-leaning respondents. The analysis reveals that conservatives prioritize environmental sustainability, while liberals focus more on fair wages for workers.

In a more personal experiment, Joseph Lee Rodgers explores whether it’s possible for older adults to learn a new language in his article, “Reading Harry Potter in French: Using Regression to Evaluate Foreign Language Vocabulary Learning by an Old Guy.” Rodgers shares his journey attempting to improve his French, offering inspiration for others interested in lifelong learning and self-experimentation.