Floyd Bullard

An alumnus of NCSSM, Floyd Bullard earned his bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics from the Johns Hopkins University, his master’s dgree at UNC-Chapel Hill, and his doctorate degree at Duke University. Floyd’s first full-time teaching job was in West Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer Benin, 1992-94 where he found that his high school French was more useful than he’d ever expected it would be. He taught at the Horace Mann School in New York for two years before beginning his current tenure at NCSSM. While at NCSSM, Floyd has enjoyed being involved in the community of high school and college statistics teachers. He has read AP Statistics exams for several years and has served on the AP Statistics test development committee, and has created and shared numerous statistics classroom activities with other teachers through workshops and on-line bulletin boards. A longtime fan of word puzzles, Floyd is currently trying to learn to construct crossword puzzles himself.

What is something you enjoy about teaching at NCSSM?

"I love engaging with students about mathematics.  They are excited to learn new things, and most of the time when they ask questions, I have to think hard to try to respond in a way that  I think clarifies things... because the questions are often profound.  I also appreciate how engaged they are with world issues."

Dr. Bullard's Math Fun Fact

"I love simulations.  I love playing Civilization--I have for 20 years--in part because the simulated landscapes always invite new stories.  I learned in college how simulations can help you estimate the consistency of a data set with a model.  In graduate school I learned how simulations can help you estimate the probabilities of different models, given a data set.  If I had all the time in the world I'd love to research how to use genetic algorithms--a form of simulation--to estimate those same probabilities.  Evolved ("posterior") model probabilities would be exciting."