Fun

A cartoon to be used in discussing the least squares property of the regression line and the lexical ambiguity in the use of the word regression. The cartoon is #1921 in the web comic Piled Higher and Deeper by Panamanian cartoonist Jorge Cham (1976- ): see www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1921. Free for use in classrooms and course websites with acknowledgement (i.e. "Piled Higher and Deeper" by Jorge Cham, www.phdcomics.com)

A cartoon to be used in discussing correlation, spurious versus causal relationships, and the meaning of residuals (humorously depicting a relationship between residual over historical enrollment levels in grad school and residual levels in the unemployment rate). The cartoon is #1078 in the web comic Piled Higher and Deeper by Panamanian cartoonist Jorge Cham (1976- ): see www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1078. Free for use in classrooms and course websites with acknowledgement (i.e. "Piled Higher and Deeper" by Jorge Cham, www.phdcomics.com)

A quote to discuss the role of the teacher in fostering learning. The quote is by evangelical educator Henrietta Mears (1890 – 1963) as quoted in Donna Kafer, Women of Courage (2007). The quote may also be found at www.quotationsbywomen.com

A quote to help in discussing over-interpretation of the results of an analysis (e.g. improper extrapolation, unwarranted conclusions that don't match the design of the study, neglecting the true variability in the data, etc.). The quote is by American nonfiction author and science reporter for the New York Times Natalie Angier (1958 - ). The quote is from her book: The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science (2007). The quote may also be found at www.quotationsbywomen.com. In context, the quote reads: "The power of science lies in its willingness to attack a big problem by dividing it into many small pieces, its embrace of the unfairly maligned practice known as reductionism. At the same time, the piecemeal approach demands that scientists be circumspect to an often tedious degree and that they resist – no matter how much they are pushed by their university’s public relations department or by desperate journalists – making more of the data than the data make of themselves."