Teaching Statistics: A Bag of Tricks - Tapa dura

"Gelman's and Nolan's class demonstrations sound so fun and instructive they make me want to build a stats course around them. Why are students in larger than average families? Why are there fewer baby girls in China? After students secretly put sequences of real and made-up random coin tosses on the board, how can Gelman and Nolan tell which are which? How could students who have worked together on such problems not be fascinated with the explanations?" (Frank Morgan, Williams College)

"Gelman and Nolan have constructed a tour de force of clever demonstrations that will permit all who use them to communicate more effectively many of the deepest ideas of statistical thinking."Howard Wainer, Distinguished Research Scientist, National Board of Medical Examiners, Philadelphia

"Teaching Statistics: A Bag of Tricks by Gelman and Nolan could have also been appropriately named "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Teaching Statistics, but were Afraid to Ask"! Much more than just a collection of engaging activities and examples, it also includes informative discussions of pedagogy and practical tips on everything from course organization to effectively integrating activities into the classroom to maintaining interest and motivating students. Both new and experienced teachers of statistics will find this book to be a valuable resource."Roxy Peck, Department of Statistics, Cal Poly, California

Students in the sciences, economics, psychology, social sciences, and medicine take introductory statistics. Statistics is increasingly offered at the high school level as well. However, statistics can be notoriously difficult to teach as it is seen by many students as difficult and boring, if not irrelevant to their subject of choice. To help dispel these misconceptions, Gelman and Nolan have put together this fascinating and thought-provoking book. Based on years of teaching experience the book provides a wealth of demonstrations, examples and projects that involve active student participation.

Part I of the book presents a large selection of activities for introductory statistics courses and combines chapters such as, 'First week of class', with exercises to break the ice and get students talking; then 'Descriptive statistics' , collecting and displaying data; then follows the traditional topics - linear regression, data collection, probability and inference. Part II gives tips on what does and what doesn't work in class: how to set up effective demonstrations and examples, how to encourage students to participate in class and work effectively in group projects. A sample course plan is provided. Part III presents material for more advanced courses on topics such as decision theory, Bayesian statistics and sampling.