A poem written in 2019 by Larry Lesser from The University of Texas at El Paso to introduce the concept of Latin squares. Be prepared to explain the meaning of the word “Latinx” in case some students don’t recognize it. The poem is part of a collection of 8 poems published with commentary in the January 2020 issue of Journal of Humanistic Mathematics.
A haiku written in 2019 by Larry Lesser from The University of Texas at El Paso for the ASA Day haiku contest celebrating the 180th anniversary of the American Statistical Association. This haiku might motivate students to learn about the history of ASA and/or of Florence Nightingale. The haiku won first place in the non-student division and was published in the January 2020 Amstat News.
A haiku poem written in 2019 by Larry Lesser from The University of Texas at El Paso to spark discussion about multivariable thinking and confounding variables, which are a major emphasis of the 2016 GAISE College Report. The poem is part of a collection of 8 poems published with commentary in the January 2020 issue of Journal of Humanistic Mathematics.
A poem written in 2019 by Larry Lesser from The University of Texas at El Paso to discuss the topic of randomness and the lexical ambiguity of the word "random" in statistical versus everyday usage. The poem is part of a collection of 8 poems published with commentary in the January 2020 issue of Journal of Humanistic Mathematics.
A poem written in 2019 by Larry Lesser from The University of Texas at El Paso to discuss systematic sampling. Students should be familiar with the lyric being sampled from (though you could provide it to make sure) and verify that the systematic sample involved sampling every third word and starting with the lyric’s first word. Students could create their own poems with different systematic samples (or different text to sample from). The poem is part of a collection of 8 poems published with commentary in the January 2020 issue of Journal of Humanistic Mathematics.
A joke to start a discussion about how a census tries to get information on the whole population.
A joke to start a discussion about how probability is used to study uncertainty in real life situations. The joke might depend somewhat on the composition of the audience since understanding the joke relies on knowing that probabilidad is the Spanish word for probability. Also, in delivering the joke it might help to put some emphasis on the last syllable to make this a true "dad joke". The joke was written in 2019 by Larry Lesser from The University of Texas at El Paso.
A cartoon to illustrate the value of statistics in the software that controls many devices. The cartoon was drawn in 2013 by British cartoonist John Landers based on an idea by Dennis Pearl from Ohio State University. This item is part of the cartoons and readings from the “World Without Statistics” series that provided cartoons and readings on important applications of statistics created for celebration of 2013 International Year of Statistics. The series may be found at https://online.stat.psu.edu/stat100/lesson/1/1.4
A cartoon to illustrate the value of statistics in estimating the unemployment rate. The cartoon was drawn in 2013 by British cartoonist John Landers based on an idea by Dennis Pearl from Ohio State University. This item is part of the cartoons and readings from the “World Without Statistics” series that provided cartoons and readings on important applications of statistics created for celebration of 2013 International Year of Statistics. The series may be found at https://online.stat.psu.edu/stat100/lesson/1/1.4
A cartoon to illustrate the value of statistics in epidemiology, especially in developing causal evidence for the harmful effects of smoking based on observational data. The cartoon was drawn in 2013 by British cartoonist John Landers based on an idea by Dennis Pearl from Ohio State University. This item is part of the cartoons and readings from the “World Without Statistics” series that provided cartoons and readings on important applications of statistics created for celebration of 2013 International Year of Statistics. The series may be found at https://online.stat.psu.edu/stat100/lesson/1/1.4