Statistically speaking, we don’t use calculus
By Dave Gammon
Quantitative skills are highly sought after by employers, and the best time to learn these skills is in high school and early college. And we all know the best math students should eventually learn calculus.
Or should they? Maybe it’s statistics, not calculus, that is a more worthy pursuit for the vast majority of students.
Gammon is an associate professor of biology at Elon University.
February 25, 2013 - 6:22 AM
In workaday activities, i use statistics far more than calculus. And i was trained to be an engineer.
Fortunately for me, I paid attention in all “math” classes.
I use calculus more, though many of the factors and parameters I use are statistically derived.
The author makes a very interesting and compelling point. A good course in probability and statistics would not only probably help more students toward careers in STEM but it will make them better voters and consumers too. But it should be noted that even though I had calculus in high school, I am not a fan of teaching high school students calculus anyway. Calculus should be a college course. If students are a little ahead in high school they should have more depth in algebra, geometry, and trig — the schools should be pounding away at these subjects — rather than a superficial calculus course.
A subject I can relate to. I was a math geek in high school and college and even though my field was electronic engineering (I chose it because I felt I would be more employable). With the technology available to each us of us these days training in applied statistics probably does not require a knowledge of calculous. But, if one wants to truly understand statistics as a forecasting tool then one has to have an understanding of advanced mathmatic concepts such as found in a class I took way back when called “Probability, random variables and stochastic processes”. A Prerequisites for that class was Calculus and Differential Equations. Talk about a class full of nerds! I guess I was one of them.
Mr. Gammon, I would submit that statistics and other such numerically based empirical observations would be either unattainable are invalid without a mathematical base.
As to calculus….it is basically a three-dimensional version of two-dimensional geometry. Volume vs. area, if you will.
We do not live in a two-dimensional world.
A base in math is fundamental to accurately interpreting the very space we move through. I suggest an epistemological necessity.
#4 Ken, it’s possible to teach an introductory probability and statistics course that does not require calculus as a prerequisite. One might not be able to derive all of the formulas but that might not be all-important at that stage. Virginia Tech has an entire Department of Statistics and they teach courses at all levels including graduate school. Nobody is suggesting the latter type for high school seniors.
#5 Jim, I had a few calculus courses back in college (differential, integral, multivariable, etc.). Calculus is not “basically a three-dimensional version of two-dimensional geometry.” How did you reach that conclusion?