Community-oriented projects in calculus-based statistics courses

The purpose of the paper is to share the ten years of experience of implementing small group community-oriented projects as a learning tool in three different calculus-based statistics courses at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. The content of the courses, specifics of group organization, authentic data issues, and the products of project work are discussed. Four examples of student projects are considered. Two of these projects were carried out for external community partners and two for community partners found inside the university. These examples serve to illustrate community involvement and community-oriented learning experienced in the statistics classroom.