Faculty

  • For the biologist who doubts an old hypothesis or wishes to test out a new one, there is the biological laboratory. There, under conditions over which he can exercise the most rigid control, he can vary the light, the air, the food, which his plants or his animals receive, from the moment of birth throughout their lifetime. Keeping all the conditions but one constant, he can make accurate measurement of the effect of the one. This is the ideal method of science, the method of the controlled experiment, through which all hypotheses may be submitted to a strict objective test. ... Unfortunately such methods of experiment are denied to us when our materials are humanity and the whole fabric of a social order. This is a quote from American cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901-1978) from the introduction to the 1973 edition of her 1929 book "Coming of Age in Samoa: A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilization".

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  • This song that may be used in teaching about box plots. The lyrics were written by Alan Reifman, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Texas Tech University. The lyrics may be sung to the tune of Billy Joel's 1978 song "Big Shot." The lyrics won first prize in the song category of the 2009 A-Mu-sing contest. Musical accompaniment realization and vocals are by Joshua Lintz from University of Texas at El Paso.

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  • A song for teaching concepts about regression and correlation written by Alan Reifman, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Texas Tech University. The lyrics may be sung to the tune of Tommy James and Bod King's 1971 song "Draggin' the Line." Musical accompaniment realization and vocals are by Joshua Lintz from University of Texas at El Paso.

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  • These three haikus were written as part of an activity in Paul Roback's introductory statistics class at St. Olaf College in February, 2009 ("World of chaos" by Carolyn Raitt; "Reality bites" by Hannah Johnson; "Is it you or me" by Nicole Villa). As a collection, the haikus won first place in the poetry category of the 2009 A-Mu-sing competition. The entire class is shown in this picture: http://www.causeweb.org/resources/fun/pics/Roback_class.jpg

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  • To us, probability is the very guide of life is the modern translation of a quote from Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 B.C.E. - 43 B.C.E.) found in his 45 B.C.E. work "De Natura Deorum".

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  • This is my take on the ubiquitous M&Ms counting activity. Each student records the color proportions in a fun-size bag of M&Ms. We pool the class data and run a Chi-Square goodness-of-fit test to determine whether or not the color proportions match those claimed on the manufacturer's website. We consistently find that the proportions do not match. The blue M&Ms, in particular, are underrepresented. This activity also includes a review of the 1-proportion z confidence interval.

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  • A cartoon to teach about the interpretation of confidence statements. The cartoon plays on the idea of what would happen if the same process was repeated over-and-over again. Cartoon by John Landers (www.landers.co.uk) based on an idea from Dennis Pearl (The Ohio State University). Free to use in the classroom and on course web sites.

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  • A cartoon to teach about efforts to improve data quality or about summarizing raw data using appropriate statistics and graphics. Cartoon by John Landers (www.landers.co.uk) based on an idea from Dennis Pearl (The Ohio State University). Free to use in the classroom and on course web sites.

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  • A cartoon to teach about the concept of independent versus dependent variables. Cartoon by John Landers (www.landers.co.uk) based on an idea from Dennis Pearl (The Ohio State University). Free to use in the classroom and on course web sites.

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  • A cartoon that might be used in teaching about data quality issues. Cartoon by John Landers (www.landers.co.uk) based on an idea from Dennis Pearl (The Ohio State University). Free to use in the classroom and on course web sites.

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