Rachel Mulder-Staff Writer

The 131 and 132 Statistics classes will both be offered in the spring semester using a “flipped classroom” model. This model is new to Dordt.

“This ‘flipped classroom’ model means that students come to class with questions, and can receive group or personalized instruction, making more efficient use of both student and instructor time,” said Nathan Tintle, who will co-teach the course.

The current plan is to implement these changes only in the spring semester and continue teaching the course in its regular format again in fall 2014.

“Both courses will be offered in a hybrid format this spring semester, which means that students will be expected to complete readings, guided discovery activities (labs), view instructional videos and take quizzes online prior to coming to interactive, tutorial sessions,” said Tintle.

This spring Tintle will co-teach the course with Jason Westra who is currently teaching a version of the course (AP Statistics) at Trinity Christian High School in Hull. Tintle’s role will be mainly behind the scenes.

According to Tintle, these two introductory statistics courses are taken by approximately half of Dordt students by the time they graduate in order to fulfill the quantitative reasoning core requirement.

“Given the increasingly pervasive use of data in decision making and research across most disciplines in the natural and social sciences, as well as the humanities, this makes the course increasingly relevant for most Dordt students,” said Tintle.

The course is also currently being taught as a dual-enrollment course at Holland Christian High School in Michigan, and will be taught as a dual-enrollment course at Unity Christian High School in Orange City next semester as well.