DeAunderia N. Bryant

Hometown & State: Houston, Texas

Education:

Teaching Experience:
What types of courses & students have you taught? What do you enjoy about teaching?

Introduction to American Politics for 4 years. What type of students: some of the best and brightest who will one day, hopefully, go into politics and change the world as we know it.

Career/Research/Other Interests:
What do you want to do when you grow up? What professional or personal/social things do you enjoy?

When I was younger I really wanted to be a judge. No, not a lawyer, I wanted to bypass that whole process and just become a judge. My mom says that I still act like one anyway.

I am an avid rollercoaster rider and although I always close my eyes as the train makes its way to the top, I can't seem to stop from loving the zero gravity and the butterflies in my stomach.

Interest in the OLC:
What intrigued you about working on the OLC? Why have you signed up to develop DDLGs?

I was really excited about the prospect of being able to help create Data-Driven Learning Guides to assist with increase the statistical literacy for undergrads. I remember my first stats class and how overwhelming and confusing I found all of the material because all I could see was just numbers that were not tied to real life circumstances that interested me. I chose to study Political Science because I assumed, rather erroneously, that math would be a thing of the past. Now having the opportunity to marry my substantive interest with an ability I have found to be quite useful in making evidentiary points in my work is amazing.

Being able to produce guides that will equip future scholars at a much earlier stage in their educational pursuits with the tools necessary to succeed in their field is what makes this position so important to me.

Explaining DDLGs:
If you were explaining DDLGs to a friend or colleague, how would you describe them? What would you say their role is/could be for instructors and their courses? What are their benefits? How would you explain what you're developing?

I would describe DDLGs as dynamic worksheets to wed field specific (political science in my case) substantive material with statistical tools to examine questions pertinent to that field. Further, I would say that they are a great way for instructors to present statistical information in their courses as supplementary to their lectures or additional as work to reinforce class assignments.

Learning/Experience from DDLG Development:
Do you have plans to use DDLGs in courses you may teach in the future?

I will be working with an upper-division course this semester here at the University of Michigan and I have actually created a few guides that will be directly relevant to that course.