Mathematical Sciences (21) This exploratory project is adapting and implementing several types of innovative materials (textbooks, software, web resources, and special simulation tools) produced in the past few years for introductory statistics courses. The development of accompanying lesson plans and student activity guides builds on results from current statistics education research; and the intellectual merit of the project is further strengthened by using the recently published Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE) for teaching introductory statistics courses as an overall framework for the effort. The project is evaluating the usability of its materials in another setting through a comparative study on the effectiveness of its different lesson plans and activity guides in randomly selected sections of a second introductory statistics course taught in a different college. In addition, the project team is providing lesson plans and other materials on a project website that is to be incorporated into the CAUSE (Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistical Education) digital collection in the National Science Digital Library. Both the comparative study and the dissemination of annotated video clips are helping expand the knowledge base of results in statistics education and enhance the project's broader impact.
