Preface
There is no shortage of excellent textbooks for introductory statistics courses at post-secondary institutions. Throughout my teaching career at various universities, I have enjoyed using many of them and recommending them to my students. Since 2007, my journey has been rooted in the province of Saskatchewan—a place I consider beautiful in every sense. Here, I have been teaching students at the First Nations University of Canada and the University of Regina.
Over the years of my teaching and research, I have come to realize that among all mathematical disciplines, statistics is perhaps the most deeply connected to our daily lives. We encounter statistics every day: we check weather channels for the probability of snow or showers; we monitor fluctuations in stock market indices; we follow pre-election projections in the news. Many of us still vividly remember the COVID-19 pandemic, when—with a mix of hope and anxiety—we became “amateur statisticians,” examining curves of infection and vaccination rates. Statistics is the language of these moments, and so much more.
As human beings, we naturally want to understand the world around us—starting with our own town, province, and country. My students frequently asked for examples that resonated with their lives here in Saskatchewan. I realized that while existing textbooks were wonderful, they often felt as though they belonged to “other worlds.” This inspired me to write a textbook about us—Saskatchewanians—while ensuring that the concepts remain clear and accessible to readers everywhere.
Over years of teaching, I developed a wealth of material, but I recognized the need for a second perspective from a seasoned academic to ensure the highest level of rigour. I asked my longtime colleague, Dr. Andrei Volodin, to collaborate with me. His expertise was invaluable; without his generous agreement to help, this book would not have been possible.
From the outset, our mission was clear: this book should be free for everyone. Thanks to the support of the University of Regina’s Open Educational Resources (OER) program, we were able to fulfill that goal.
Just as a parent cares for a child, I hold a deep affection for this work. As a patriot of Saskatchewan and of Canada, I am proud that this book reflects our home. It is filled with data relating to our province and our country. Most importantly, we had the honour of interviewing Elders to include examples relating to the Indigenous Peoples of Canada.
The textbook contains 10 original chapters with many real-life examples drawn from our community-based projects. To provide a well-rounded learning experience, we also integrated exercises from other open educational resources to familiarize readers with various statistical styles. Although it is primarily intended for undergraduate students at universities, almost anyone with a modest mathematical background can read it and learn the basic concepts of statistics.
To make the resource teaching-friendly, I developed lecture slides in PowerPoint. Readers can find the link to these files at the end of each chapter.
I plan to continue working on this resource to make it useful in more advanced statistics courses. I would therefore be grateful if you could send your comments and corrections about this book via email: asardarli@firstnationsuniversity.ca
Acknowledgements
I would like to take this opportunity to thank OER managers Shuana Niessen and Isaac Mulolani, who patiently guided me in developing this resource on Pressbooks. Shuana also helped me design the cover page of the book. I express my deepest gratitude to Elders Laurie Waditaka and Lance Russell Singer for their insight and time.
My thanks also go to our graduate students Hira Nadeem, Jana Sasakamoose, Dm. Mehedi Abid, and Walisinghe Madusha Harshani De Silva, who helped me as research assistants. I express my appreciation to Jackie Nixon, academic advisor at the First Nations University of Canada, for her helpful advice. Last but not least, I would like to thank the reviewers (whose names I do not know) for their comments and recommendations, which significantly improved this manuscript.
Arzu Sardarli
Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada
April 19, 2026
