The number of increases a particular stock makes over a fixed period follows a Poisson distribution. This article discusses using this easily-found data as an opportunity to let students become involved in the data collection and analysis process.

Data analysis requires subtle probability reasoning to answer questions like "What is the chance of event A occurring, given that event B was observed?" This generic question arises in discussions of many intriguing scientific questions such as "What is the probability that an adolescent weighs between 120 and 140 pounds given that…

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.)

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.)

Data from a cough challenge study are displayed with dot charts to demonstrate the importance of graphs in understanding data, principles of graph construction and visual perception. The data are available for use in the classroom.

We establish an interesting connection between the number of runs and the length of the first run when tossing a fair coin.

Practical project work based on eBay selling prices is described. It is suitable for secondary school students of a wide range of statistical expertise and it may be used to introduce a statistical package. (Contains 4 figures and 5 tables.)

The term "data snooping" refers to the practice of choosing which statistical analyses to apply to a set of data after having first looked at those data. Data snooping contradicts a fundamental precept of applied statistics, that the scheme of analysis is to be planned in advance. In this column, the authors shall elucidate the statistical…

Many primary school teachers will have not heard of the data-handling cycle as set out in the English Key Stage 3 (UK ages 11-14) curriculum. This article argues that with a little adjustment, it could become the defining model for a holistic and dialogical approach to data handling at Key Stage 2 (UK ages 7-11).

The use of The Three Stooges' films as a source of data in an introductory statistics class is described. The Stooges' films are separated into three populations. Using these populations, students may conduct hypothesis tests with data they collect.

A practical hands-on classroom exercise is described and illustrated using the price of an item as dependent variable throughout. The exercise is well-tested and affords the instructor a variety of approaches and levels.

This is the first of a series on data investigations in which the cycle of issues, planning, collecting, exploring, interpreting and discussing is reported for selected data investigations, with the data sets available on the Blackwell repository. The motivating issues for the investigation of this report were the manner in which people clasp…

Tables and charts are efficient tools for organizing numbers, but many people give little consideration to the order in which they present the data. This article illustrates the strengths and weaknesses of four criteria for organizing data--empirical, theoretical, alphabetical and a standardized reporting scheme.

This article shows how the CensusAtSchool project can be implemented in the classroom to make data handling much more real and relevant. It includes full lesson plans and notes on what the pupils achieved. [Editor's Note The lesson plans for this article are provided in figure 4, which has been placed at the end of the article for convenience. The…

This article presents some data from a major sports event that can be used in common statistical analyses.