Anyone who ever thought maths and creativity were still at war might want to page through a one-of-a-kind storybook with an unsuspecting main character: Statistics! Students and staff came together to turn stats into a story, and the product is nothing short of magic.
Pretoria, South Africa (12 September 2024) — Undergraduate students at the University of Pretoria have turned stats knowledge into a new kind of magic by creating a storybook—’Fiction and Fable: Tales of Time-Series.’
What began as a way to keep third years on their toes and engaged in their learning during the pandemic eventually became a new way of consuming the information entirely. A short story anthology written by students, Fiction and Fable: Tales of Time-Series was led by Professor Johan Ferreira of the University’s Stats Department and edited in collaboration with Dr Seite Makgai.
“It was a challenging time just after the pandemic,” says Prof Ferreira. “Everybody was glued to their screens, and my sense was that students were exhausted from maintaining interest and focus across a wide range of continuing academic expectations.”
It was a conversation with his botanist partner that planted the seed of adding storytelling into the mix. They had told him a story made up of plant characters, which sparked him to consider what would happen if he could get his students to do the same thing.
The idea was brought to around 300 students who were invited to contribute. Soon, the book was on its way!
“It took a few months to edit the submitted works, after which the entire submission entered a peer-review phase; therefore, the volume has been completely peer-reviewed by experts in both the statistical pedagogy field as well as within creative writing. After this, it took a few months for illustrations to be done, because each illustration is unique to the story it accompanies,” Prof Ferreira shares.
The storybook comprises the students’ contributions as explored through fiction—making stats knowledge the main character in the kind of twist that reminds us just how interlinked maths and creativity actually are. As for the gorgeous illustrations, these were done by the talented Michelle Pinto.
Considering that humans have digested information through story-telling since the dawn of time, the University commends the creation as an effective learning tool for analytical sciences that’s created a less stressful approach both to teaching and understanding concepts.
“This book comes at the precise moment in time when academic statistics are challenged to think of new and novel ways to advocate for their discipline. I have no knowledge of any other similar statistics storybook being written—the editors should really be considered true visionaries in the field of statistics education,” praised Prof Delia North, former Dean of Science at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and a stalwart in statistics education.
The book is available freely online, and you can dive into it, here!
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