1. Hands on Statistics: Active learning in College Guojing Wang, Maika Yanagishita, Andrew Hwang, James Florczak Introduction As learning assistants for Statistics 100 and Statistics 200, we set out to seek out information pertaining to active learning in the collegiate environment. Upon researching a vast amount of scholarly articles pertaining to statistics, we discovered a study created by Kieth A. Carlson and Jennifer R. Winquist of Valparaiso University. They Conducted an experiment using a random sample of non-statistics majors to see if there was an increase in performance while using a workbook and completing problems in class as opposed to just attending lecture. Research Questions Does workbook curriculum and group-based classes change a students’ attitude toward the class? How is active learning defined in a statistics course? What determines whether an active learning approach is successful? Methods and Design SATS-36-- a 36 item scale with six subscales. Each item use a 7-point Likert scale (e.g., 1=Strongly disagree to 7=Strongly agree) to measure each student’s attitude towards statistics. Higher SAT scores indicate more positive attitudes toward statistics. Sample: 59 of 86 of students completed the pre and post SAT who used the workbook approach to study introductory statistics. Students in the survey were non- statistics majors. The mean age was 21.3. 13 students were male and 46 were female. Students who completed the survey did not have significantly different GPAs than other students, nor did they have significantly different scores on the final exam. Comparison Group: 20 sections (total 235 students) who took a similar statistics class didn’t use the workbook approach. Other conditions are similar to the sample. Results Table 1: Change in Students’ Attitudes from first to last day of course Used the Wilcoxon signed ranks tests to determine if students’ scores on each of the SATS subscales changed during the semester Four significant effects from the first day of class to the last day Affect, Cognitive Competence, Difficulty, Effort Two effects did not change significantly Value and Interest It is interesting that although students stated that they liked statistics more, they also found statistics to be more difficult than they originally predicted Table 2: Comparison of Pre-Course Attitudes Used the same method (SAT-36) to measure pre-course attitudes of a comparison group Compared results of the research group and the comparison group and found no significant differences of pre-course attitudes (Pre-course attitudes were essentially the same for both groups) Table 3: Comparison of Post-Course Attitudes Showed significance in 3 of the 6 SATS subscales Affect, Cognitive Competence, Difficulty The research group reported after taking the course, they liked statistics more, felt they were confident in their ability to understand statistics, and also thought statistics was more difficult than expected Table 4: Comparison of change scores Compared the significance of the change in attitudes pre-class and post-class The research group significantly larger change scores than the comparison groups, especially in the subscales affect, cognitive competence, and difficulty According to the Weltman and Whiteside (2010) experiment, which found that activity instructional methods of teaching helped the performance of lower GPA students and hindered the performance of higher GPA students. Contrary to those results, this experiment showed that higher GPA students performed better than lower GPA students. Also, this experiment showed that higher GPA students had more positive attitudes regarding statistics than lower GPA students did. Conclusion In conclusion, the study found that students who experienced the workbook approach had positive changes in their attitudes toward statistics. Further these positive changes were positively correlated with both students’ final exam performance and their GPA. Collectively, these results suggest that the workbook approach shows promise as an educational approach in college statistics courses. Acknowledgements We would like to thank Dr. Bortiatynski and Jenay Robert of The Pennsylvania State University, and Kieth A. Carlson and Jennifer R. Winquist of Valparaiso University for their role in promoting proper teaching techniques for students enrolled at universities across the country. Reference Schau, C., Stevens, J., Dauphinee, T. L., and Del Vecchio, A. (1995), “The development and validation of the Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics,” Educational and Psychological Measurement. 55, 868-875. Journal of Statistics Education Volume 19, Number (2011),www.amstat.org/publications/jse/v19n1/carlson.pdf