Workshop Statistics:

Shorn of all subtlety and led naked out of the protec- tive fold of educational research literature, there comes a sheepish little fact: lectures don't work nearly as well as many of us would like to think. -George Cobb (1992) This book contains activities that guide students to discover statistical concepts, explore statistical principles, and apply statistical techniques. Students work toward these goals through the analysis of genuine data and through inter- action with one another, with their instructor, and with technology. Providing a one-semester introduction to fundamental ideas of statistics for college and advanced high school students, Warkshop Statistics is designed for courses that employ an interactive learning environment by replacing lectures with hands- on activities. The text contains enough expository material to stand alone, but it can also be used to supplement a more traditional textbook. Some distinguishing features of Workshop Statistics are its emphases on active learning, conceptual understanding, genuine data, and the use of technology. The following sections of this preface elaborate on each of these aspects and also describe the unusual organizational structure of this text.