Statistical tasks that can be solved in a variety of ways provide rich sites for classroom discourse. Orchestrating such discourse requires careful planning and execution. Five specific practices can help teachers do so. The five practices can be used to structure conversations so that coherent classroom narratives about solutions to tasks may be…

Understanding the roles of random selection and random assignment in experimental design is a central learning objective in most introductory statistics courses. This article describes an activity, appropriate for a high school or introductory statistics course, designed to teach the concepts, values and pitfalls of random selection and assignment…

This article proposes the use of the coefficient of determination as a statistic for hypothesis testing in multiple linear regression based on distributions acquired by beta sampling. (Contains 3 figures.)

Classroom-based learning has great value, but online classes are becoming quite popular in the academic world because of the tremendous opportunities they offer. This article outlines the author's journey through the planning, development and execution of an online statistics course.

The unexpectedness of the birthday problem has long been used by teachers of statistics in discussing basic probability calculation. An activity is described that engages students in understanding probability and sampling using the popular Facebook social networking site. (Contains 2 figures and 1 table.)

In introductory statistics courses, the concept of power is usually presented in the context of testing hypotheses about the population mean. We instead propose an exercise that uses a binomial probability table to introduce the idea of power in the context of testing a population proportion. (Contains 2 tables, and 2 figures.)

This article presents an activity that engages students in considering characteristics of a random sequence, in this case, a randomly generated playlist of songs using the iPod shuffle feature. Students examine simulated sequences of randomly generated songs from a small music library in order to identify characteristics that are used to develop…

Statistics is an integral part of the K-12 mathematics curriculum (age 5-18). Naturally, students construct misconceptions of what they learn. This article discusses The Bop It[C]Challenge, a review activity assesses student understanding and reveals their misunderstandings of statistical concepts. (Contains 3 figures and 1 table.)

This article describes how practice problems for the actuarial examination in probability can be used to encourage active, collaborative learning. (Contains 1 table.)

The challenges of learning statistics, particularly distributions and their characteristics, can be potentially monumental for vision impaired and blind students. The authors provide some practical advice for teaching these students.

Two contestants debate the notorious probability problem of the sex of the second child. The conclusions boil down to explication of the underlying scenarios and assumptions. Basic principles of probability theory are highlighted.

This article describes an assessment activity that can show students how much they intuitively understand about statistics, but also alert them to common misunderstandings. How the activity can be used formatively to help improve students' conceptual understanding of analysis of variance is discussed. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)

The article illustrates how statistical content and pedagogical reasoning were taught in tandem in an undergraduate course. A typical day in the course is described. It is also suggested that practising teachers can benefit from strategies used in the course. (Contains 1 table and 3 figures.)

This article presents activities appropriate for the first half of a general introductory statistics course. All activities revolve around the same data set collected early in the course. The activities require students to make decisions about how they should proceed. (Contains 2 tables and 5 figures.)

We present the process our institution used to create a statistics requirement for almost all incoming first-year students. From conception and planning, to hiring and acceptance by the university community, we offer lessons learned should you consider making such a shift in your own curriculum.