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
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".
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.
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.
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.
A questionnaire is never perfect: some are simply better than others. A quote of American statistician and quality control pioneer William Edwards Deming (1900-1993). The quote appears on page 31 of Deming's book "Some Theory of Sampling" (John Wiley & Sons, 1950) . The quote also appears in "Statistically Speaking: A dictionary of quotations" compiled by Carl Gaither and Alma Cavazos-Gaither.
I have a mass of statistics here, but I am afraid of them because I was never able to do much with that rugged study, mathematics. I can only figure on the multiplication table up to seven times nine, which is - 84. This quote by American humorist Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain: 1835 - 1910) is reported in "The New York Times" on March 30, 1906 as part of a speech Twain gave at a fundraising effort for the New York State Association for Promoting the Interests of the Blind.
The invalid assumption that correlation implies cause is probably among the two or three most serious and common errors of human reasoning is a quote by American evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould (1941 - 2002). The quote is found in Gould's book "The Mismeasure of Man" ( 2nd edition, p.242, W.W. Norton Publishing, 1996).
Evidence, which we have means to strengthen for or against a proposition, is our proper means for attaining truth. is a quote by British nursing pioneer and statistician Florence Nightingale (1820 - 1910). The quote appears in her book "Suggestions for Thought to the Searchers After Truth Among the Artizans of England" (page 58, Eyre and Spottiswoode).
The way to do research is to attack the facts at the point of greatest astonishment is a quote by British writer Celia Green (1935 - ) from her book "The Decline and Fall of Science" (Hamilton Ltd., 1976). The quote also appears in "Statistically Speaking: A dictionary of quotations" compiled by Carl Gaither and Alma Cavazos-Gaither.