A Note to Instructors

The subject of statistics, like many things in life, is best learned throughactive participation.  Your students will better understand statistical concepts and be more able to apply them if they are actively engagedduring class.  These activities give you numerous options for teaching,reinforcing, and applying statistical understanding throughout a typicalfirst course in statistics.Teaching statistics presents the familiar challenge of covering too muchcontent in too little time.  It is often difficult to find time to do activitieswith a statistics class and still teach all the material you need to teach.Consider ways that you can incorporate activities into your currentapproach to teaching statistics without necessarily using more time.Perhaps you can start an activity in class and have students complete it ontheir own.  Perhaps you can replace a lecture with an activity that teachesthe same concepts.  Perhaps you can do an activity as a demonstration toreduce the time commitment.  The activities are designed to be flexibleand support a variety of classroom uses.If you are doing activities that involve the use of StatCrunch, please besure that you are using the new version.  Go to MyStatCrunch >Preferences and then select New StatCrunch before doing the activities.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Data Collection
Introducing Statistics Through Quotes (1.1)
Categorizing Student Survey Data (1.1)
Comparing Sampling Methods (1.4)
Designing an Experiment (1.6)
 
Chapter 2: Organizing and Summarizing Data
Exploring Histograms with StatCrunch (2.2)
Sorting Histograms by Shape (2.2)
Predicting Distribution Shape (2.2)
Constructing and Comparing Graphical Representations (2.3) Recognizing and Correcting Misleading Graphs (2.4)
Chapter 3: Numerically Summarizing Data
Understanding Measures of Center (3.1)
Comparing Statistics to Parameters (3.1  3.2)
Exploring Standard Deviation (3.2)
Understanding the Standard Deviation Formula (3.2)
Shifting and Scaling Data (3.4)
Matching Boxplots and Histograms (3.5)
Chapter 4: Describing the Relation between Two Variables
Exploring Properties of the Linear Correlation Coefficient (4.1) Finding a Least-Squares Regression Line (4.2)
Examining the Relationship Between Arm Length and Height (4.2) Minimizing the Sum of the Squared Residuals (4.2)
Understanding Influential Observations (4.3)
Investigating the Coefficient of Determination (4.3)
Chapter 5: Probability
Demonstrating the Law of Large Numbers (5.1)
Finding the Probability of Getting Heads (5.1)
Interpreting Conditional Probabilities (5.4)
Calculating the Probability of Winning the Lottery (5.5)
Exploring the Duplicate Birthday Problem (5.6)
Chapter 6: Discrete Probability Distributions
Finding the Expected Value of a Game (6.1)
Exploring a Binomial Distribution from Multiple Perspectives (6.2) Using Binomial Probabilities in Baseball (6.2)
Designing a Game (6.2)
Chapter 7: The Normal Probability Distribution
Constructing Probability Distributions Involving Dice (7.1)
Grading on a Curve (7.3)
Modeling with the Normal Distribution (7.3)
Playing Plinko (7.5)
Analyzing Standardized Test Scores (7.5)
Chapter 8: Sampling Distributions
Creating a Sampling Distribution for the Mean (8.1)
Analyzing the Variability in Sample Means (8.1)
Simulating IQ Scores (8.1)
Sampling from Normal and Non-normal Populations (8.1)
Creating a Sampling Distribution for a Proportion (8.2)
Describing the Distribution of the Sample Proportion (8.2) 55
Chapter 9: Estimating the Value of a Parameter
Exploring the Effects of Confidence Level, Sample Size, and Shape I (9.1)
Constructing a Confidence Interval with M&M’s (9.1)
Constructing a Confidence Interval for Average Temperature (9.2) Exploring the Effects of Confidence Level, Sample Size, and Shape II (9.2) 
Constructing a Confidence Interval from a Non-Normal Distribution (9.2)
Constructing a Confidence Interval for Die Rolls (9.2)
Take Me Out to the Ball Game (9.3)
Finding a Bootstrap Confidence Interval (9.5)
Chapter 10: Hypothesis Tests Regarding a Parameter
The Logic of Hypothesis Testing (10.1)
Interpreting P-Values (10.2)
Testing a Claim with Skittles I (10.2)
Understanding Type I Error Rates I (10.2)
Testing Cola Preferences (10.2)
Testing a Claim with Beads (10.2)
Analyzing a Research Article I (10.2)
Testing a Claim with Skittles II (10.3)
Understanding Type I Error Rates II (10.3)
Using Bootstrapping to Test a Claim (10.5)
Computing the Power of a Test (10.6)
Chapter 11: Inferences on Two Samples
Making an Inference about Two Proportions (11.1)
Analyzing  Rates of Drug Side Effects (11.1)
Predicting Basketball Game Outcomes (11.1)
Considering the Effects of Grammar (11.1)
Analyzing Kissing Data (11.1)
Analyzing a Research Article II (11.2)
Comparing Arm Span and Height (11.2)
Comparing Bull and Bear Markets (11.3)
Comparing Rental Car Prices (11.3)
Differentiating Between Practical and Statistical Significance (11.3) 94
Chapter 12: Inference on Categorical Data
Performing a Goodness-of-Fit Test (12.1)
Testing for Homogeneity of Proportions (12.2)
 
Chapter 13: Comparing Three or More Means
Designing a Randomized Complete Block Design (13.3)
Performing a Two-Way ANOVA (13.4)
 
Chapter 14: Inference on the Least-Squares Regression Model and Multiple Regression 
Testing the Significance of a Regression Model (14.1)
Using a Randomization Test for Correlation (14.1)