The problem addressed by this proposal is how to teach an introductory undergraduate statistics course more effectively. The traditional lecture and homework format of teaching statistics are not conducive to learning. In addition, it is hard to communicate the basic classical concepts of sampling distributions, interval estimation, and hypothesis testing. This project will develop curriculum materials for a new "probability/activity" statistics course. This class would be taught using a workshop format in which the students learn data analysis, probability, and inference material by means of directed activities. The inferential content of the class will be taught using a Bayesian perspective. A textbook will be written that contains a collection of classroom and homework activities for learning concepts of probability and elementary inference. In addition, an instructor's manual will be developed that gives a description of the important concepts and advice on how to encourage the collaborative learning in the classroom. The effectiveness of this new statistics class will be assessed by the performance of the students on tests measuring knowledge of basic concepts in statistics and the general attitude of the students about the discipline of statistics. This new statistics class will be compared with the traditional class with respect to the success of the course in reaching particular achievement goals.
