Advances in technology and communication have increased the amount of statistical information delivered through everyday media. The importance of statistics in everyday life has led to calls for increased attention to statistical literacy in the mathematics curriculum (Watson 2006). Gal (2004) sees statistical literacy as the need for students to be able to interpret results from studies and media reports and to be able to pose critical and reflective questions about those reports. Aspects of Gal's notion of statistical literacy have been incorporated in the New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education 2007). The implementation of the above-extended notion of statistical literacy is likely to pose a challenge to teachers. Teachers may need practical ideas and learning activities to enhance statistical literacy in the classroom. One way to develop an effective sequence of activities is through design research (Cobb 2000), which generally involves cycles of three phases: preparation; teaching experiment; and retrospective analysis. In the current study, students evaluated statistical investigations undertaken by others, considering data collection methods, choice of measures and validity of findings (Ministry of Education 2007).