The Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education is happy to announce our 89th Cartoon Caption Contest! Each month a cartoon, drawn by British cartoonist John Landers, is posted for you and your students to suggest statistical captions (cartoons are posted at the beginning of the month and submissions are due at the end of the month). The caption contest is offered as a fun way to get your students thinking independently about statistical concepts - a great activity for the start of the new term.
The next cartoon and the entry rules for the contest ending October 31 are at
The best submission will be posted on CAUSEweb and the winner(s) will receive their choice of a coffee mug or t-shirt imprinted with the final cartoon or free registration to eCOTS2024.
September Results:
The September caption contest cartoon is shown above. The judges found the winning caption to be “The first data science hackathon” submitted by Larry Lesser from The University of Texas at El Paso. Larry’s caption might be used in announcing hackathon style events and in discussing the importance of collaboration in a team-based search for meaning in data. An honorable mention this month goes to Jeremy Case from Taylor University for his caption: “Looking at the data is half the battle,” that can be used to remind students of the importance of examining data visualizations as an early step in understanding a data set. A second honorable mention goes to an anonymous submission: “Thanks Guys. Let's do one more simulation after lunch and my model should be ready to go,” that might be used to make the point that you may have to go to great lengths to calibrate a simulation model with reality.
Thanks to everyone who submitted a caption and congratulations to our winners!