Active Statistics

'This book is an extraordinarily rich and generous resource for teaching statistics. Full of stories about challenging statistical problems, the examples reflect all the messiness of real life, and encourage class discussion of what went wrong and how to do things better. The extensive collection of lesson plans and exercises provides a fine inspiration to adopt a different, more active, style of teaching.' David Spiegelhalter, University of Cambridge

'This is a wonderful read for any statistics teacher. The focus on real-world applications and statistical thinking ensures that everyone will gain new insights and perspectives no matter how long you have been teaching.' Beth Chance, California Polytechnic State University

'I have to say reading this book came as a pleasant surprise for me. I thought I was going to be reviewing another statistics book and instead, it was an insightful read on how to think about teaching statistics. I found it engaging and helpful in rethinking how I approach teaching statistics.' Pamela Davis-Kean, University of Michigan

The authors are experienced researchers who have published articles in hundreds of different scientific journals in fields including statistics, computer science, policy, public health, political science, economics, sociology, and engineering. They have also published articles in the Washington Post, New York Times, Slate, and other public venues. Their previous books include Bayesian Data Analysis, Teaching Statistics: A Bag of Tricks, and Regression and Other Stories. Andrew Gelman is Higgins Professor of Statistics and Professor of Political Science at Columbia University. Aki Vehtari is Professor in Computational Probabilistic Modeling at Aalto University, Finland.

How to use this book; Part I. Organizing a Plan of Study: 1. Active learning; 2. Setting up a course of study; 3. In the classroom; Part II. Stories, Activities, Problems, and Demonstrations: 4. Week by week: the first semester; 5. Week by week: the second semester; Appendixes: A. Pre-test questions; B. Final exam questions; C. Outlines of classroom activities.