The aim of this article is to provide suggestions to create a collaborative teaching environment where active learning is the primary method used to teach statistics. The course meets in a computer lab and a classroom. I structure the course so that 15 to 30 min of every 75-min session consists of lecture material. The remaining class time is devoted to computer work, group work, verbal and written presentation, and assessment. I create assignments that require students to discover statistical principles independently.
Students examine their data to estimate the means, medians, modes, and standard deviations.
Students describe the statistics meanings and decide whether or not their results support their original estimates. They were shocked to see that the percentage of people having seen such a movie was much lower than they expected. I immediately took advantage of this teaching opportunity and asked the class why this result might be true. Students began to hypothesize how age and gender might influence this result. The remainder of the class period was spent having students develop their own interaction hypotheses.