Students in Jennifer Bready’s statistics class at Mount Saint Mary College toss inflatable globes to collect data on the Earth’s water-to-land ratio. The experiment allows the class to apply statistical formulas to hands-on observations.
Mount Saint Mary College students in Jennifer Bready’s Statistics class recently took a hands-on – and airborne – approach to data collection.
To determine the percentage of the Earth’s surface covered by water, students utilized beach ball globes in a collaborative experiment. The exercise allows students to generate a real-time dataset: every time a student catches the globe, they record whether their index finger landed on water or land. By the end of the session, the class uses these proportions to calculate a statistical estimate of the planet's actual water coverage.
Bready, who serves as the Dean of the School of Arts, Sciences, and Education and a Professor of Mathematics, uses the activity to bridge the gap between abstract theory and physical application.
This interactive approach to mathematics is a hallmark of the Mount’s expanding technical curriculum. The college is currently accepting students for its new Bachelor of Science in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. This cutting-edge major prepares graduates for high-demand careers in tech, healthcare, and finance by teaching them to harness the power of AI and complex data analysis to solve global challenges.