David Kennedy and Cindy Durrett visited our AP Statistics class from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) Program.  Both work as Government Analysts; jobs that involve statistical analysis.  Our students were interested in learning how what we’re learning in class can be applied in real word applications. 

David started the visit by providing his background and how it led to him working as an analyst.  He actually aspired to be a dentist growing up, but didn’t like biology classes in college.  Therefore, he worked as a police officer for 10 years in Valdosta, Georgia.  Cindy aspired to be an accountant.  She explained that when she entered graduate school, she needed to choose an accounting field of focus.  She liked criminology, and soon began an internship at FDLE.  Cindy has been working in various functions of statistical analysis for 20 years.

Our students were particularly interested in the most recently produced annual crime reports of Gadsden County.  They were surprised to learn that there were zero murders in 2014 and only two in 2015.  Cindy also displayed a line chart that illustrated crimes trending down since 1995.  Such stats are important because crime stats can affect funding for a community by the government.  In addition to reports, David and Cindy discussed the various software tools and formulas they use on the job.  Our students learned that the tools and formulas used at FDLE are identical to those used in our classroom.

Overall, our students were attentive and learned important information that should continue to peak their interest in their AP Statistics course here at East Gadsden.