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Upper School Statisticians and Historians Make Interdisciplinary Connections

Upper School Statisticians and Historians Make Interdisciplinary Connections

At Wildwood, students and faculty are constantly connecting; whether casually in hallways or more formally in classrooms and with cross-divisional projects, students feel empowered to share their learnings. 

Recently, this celebration of interdisciplinary work linked two very different upper school classes—statistics and modern U.S. history. Toward the end of their deep dive into data analysis, students from Herach Danlyan’s statistics class joined the students from Deb Christenson’s modern U.S. history class (affectionately referred to as MUSH). The statistics students taught the MUSH students how to use software to take raw data and convert it into visual charts and graphs, and, most importantly, interpret that visualized data. 

In addition to enhancing the depth of understanding and practical uses of data analysis for statistics students, these student-led lessons helped MUSH students engage with their study of economic systems. After practicing their newly acquired skills, MUSH students were able to incorporate data analysis into their process for researching and forming arguments for upcoming debates. In the next unit of their economics studies, students would be debating economic justice issues like workers’ rights, breaking up monopolies, and wealth inequality. Thanks to the mastery of their peer statisticians, MUSH students were now able to integrate the interpretation of existing data into their presentations—combining research, content knowledge, critical thinking, writing, and presentation skills.

  • fall 2021