INTRODUCING STATISTICS TO ULTRA-ORTHODOX JEWISH STUDENTS BY EXAMPLES FROM THE BIBLE Sigal Levy and Yelena Stukalin The Academic College of Tel Aviv Yaffo levy@mta.ac.il The Holy Bible is a source of many disputes and discussions. Some issues that are discussed may be reviewed considering the knowledge that modern science has to offer, specifically the principles of statistics. In this paper, we aim to examine a biblical story that is found in the Book of Daniel the prophet through the prism of statistics. The text describes the first documented clinical experiment conducted by Daniel and three of his friends. This story enables the calculation of p-value and can serve to present the principles of experiment design. We believe that this approach will make the study of statistics more understandable to the Ultra-Orthodox students and increase their motivation to engage in scientific studies. INTRODUCTION Understanding statistics is key to conducting and critically reviewing research in almost any field of science. Therefore, unsurprisingly, statistics is a topic that is included in the curricula of most higher education programs across the world. Probability and statistics are introduced in at least one mandatory course in both undergraduate and graduate programs. Making statistics accessible to the general student population may be challenging because, in many cases, the students taking a statistics course are not inclined toward exact sciences and specifically mathematics. In addition, student populations may be culturally diverse. A large body of knowledge demonstrates the importance of awareness of cultural diversity in the classroom as well as the need to adjust classroom management, teaching styles, and learning styles accordingly. Lesser (2008) presents a statistical literacy course with a gender equity theme. Plank and DiPietro (2008) describe a freshman seminar course that explored statistics of the gay and lesbian population. Verhoeven and Tempelaar (2014) provide an overview of the literature regarding statistics education and cultural diversity. They found patterns of differences between cultural regions in attitudes towards statistics, which should not be ignored when teaching statistics. Hulsizer and Woolf (2009) argue that statistical reasoning and thinking require understanding context, and because diversity is contextual, instructors must take diversity into account. They describe diversity as including race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, cross-cultural, international, socioeconomic status, language, educational level, religion, marital status, social class/caste, computer literacy, and physical appearance. In conclusion, teaching statistics should be culture-oriented and sensitive to students’ backgrounds. Introducing statistical concepts may be more effective when using ideas and examples from the students’ own cultural environment. In accordance with Lesser (2010), we wish to argue that good course examples should be taken from the students’ everyday lifestyles that would address problems and issues to which the students can relate. Along these lines, we wish to present the challenge of teaching statistics to a specific population—the ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) Jewish community in Israel. In reference to students in Israel, Cahaner and Malach (2021) state that the number of ultra- Orthodox students in academic degree programs has been small for many years. After changes in the demands of the labour market, however, academic institutions specifically tailored courses to the needs of the ultra-Orthodox population. Between 2010 to 2020, the number of ultra-Orthodox students in higher education increased three-fold. According to Cahaner and Malach, in the 2019–2020 academic year, their numbers had reached 13,100, and 68% of them were women. In the same year, the number of ultra-Orthodox students rose once again, by a rate of 9–12% for ultra-Orthodox women and just 3% for ultra-Orthodox men. The number of those studying in advanced degree programs has risen even more dramatically, reaching 1,630 in 2019—five times the corresponding figure for 2010. In 2019– 2020 alone, the number of ultra-Orthodox students in advanced degree programs rose by 17%, as compared with the previous year. On his website, Jonathan Rosenberg demonstrates several interesting applications of probability theory, knot theory and game theory in explaining some verses from the Mishna, a written ICOTS11 (2022) Invited Paper (DOI: 10.52041/iase.icots11.T8F3) Levy & Stukalin In S. A. Peters, L. Zapata-Cardona, F. Bonafini, & A. Fan (Eds.), Bridging the Gap: Empowering & Educating Today’s Learners in Statistics. Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Teaching Statistics (ICOTS11 2022), Rosario, Argentina. International Association for Statistical Education. iase-web.org ©2022 ISI/IASE