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Article: Santa Cruz professor lets (chocolate) chips fall where they may
- Article from:
- Oakland Tribune
- Article date:
- January 6, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2008 Oakland Tribune. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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SANTA CRUZ -- When it comes to keeping students engaged in
learning about statistics, Herbie Lee is one smart cookie.
The associate professor of applied mathematics and statistics at
UC Santa Cruz lures unsuspecting students into his complicated world
of random distributions and bell curves by offering up an
irresistible temptation as a tangible example of statistical
variability -- chocolate chip cookies.
By breaking open the store-bought snacks, Lee demonstrates the
variability in mass-produced products and, in the grander scheme,
challenges misconceptions about the uniformity of all things.
The journal American Statistician recently published an article
by Lee that detailed his cookie ...