Resource Library

A cartoon for use in teaching about the Normal distribution. The cartoon was drawn by Australian epidemiologist Matthew Freeman of the Public Health Information Development Unit at the University of Adelaide. It is free for use on course websites or in the classroom provided author acknowledgement is given (e.g. leave copyright statement on the image). Commercial uses should contact the copyright holder. The cartoon was also published under the title "A visual comparison of normal and paranormal distributions" in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health (2006) 60(1):6

...making an appeal to the eye when proportion and magnitude are concerned, is the best and readiest method of conveying a distinct idea. is a quote by Scottish political economist William Playfair (1759 - 1823) often credited as the originator of statistical graphics. The quote is found in the preface to his 1801 book "The Statistical Breviary: Shewing, on a Principle Entirely New, The Resources of Every State and Kingdom in Europe" (the book where he introduced the piechart)

There is a magic in graphs. The profile of a curve reveals in a flash a whole situation - the life history of an epidemic, a panic, or an era of prosperity. The curve informs the mind, awakens the imagination, convinces. is a quote by Henry David Hubbard (1870-1943) who was the first secretary of the National Bureau of Standards; serving from 1901 to 1938. The quote appears in his introduction to the 1939 book "Graphic Presentation" by William Brinton. The entire one-page essay by Mr. Hubbard is an outstanding description of the value of graphical displays and can be found at http://www.archive.org/stream/graphicpresentat00brinrich#page/2/mode/1up

The conception of chance enters in the very first steps of scientific activity in virtue of the fact that no observation is absolutely correct. I think chance is a more fundamental conception that causality; for whether in a concrete case, a cause-effect relation holds or not can only be judged by applying the laws of chance to the observation. is a quote by German and British nobel prize winning physicist Max Born (1882 - 1970). The quote appears in his 1949 book "Natural Philosophy of Cause and Chance" published by Clarendon Press.

The WISE Bootstrapping Applet can be used to demonstrate bootstrapping by creating a confidence interval for a population mean or median. The user can manipulate the population distribution, sample size, and number of resamples. An associated guide gives suggestions for teaching bootstrapping.

On this site, students can practice classifying statistics problems. They first click to check the statistical methods that they want to practice classifying. Then they click the "Submit" button to get a description of a research project that involves a statistical technique. Students then click on the technique that will most likely be used in the project. If they choose the incorrect answer, they must read the hint and try again. When they get something correct, they click on the "Next" button to try another problem.

Lest men suspect your tale untrue, Keep probability in view. is a quote by English poet and playwright John Gay (1685 - 1732). The quote is the first two lines of the poem "The Painter who pleased Nobody and Everybody," which is fable number 18 from the from the 1727 collection "Fables" volume 1.

A cartoon to use in discussing the importance of indicating the variability associated with any prediction. The cartoon is the work of Theresa McCracken and appears as #5756 on McHumor.com (appearing here with a statistics-based caption change suggested by Dennis Pearl). Free for non-profit use in statistics course such as in lectures and course websites.

A cartoon for use in discussing outliers. The cartoon is by New Zealand cartoonist Nick Kim (see www.lab-initio.com). This copyrighted cartoon is available for free use in classes and on course webistes at non-profit educational institutions. Commercial inquiries should be directed to the artist (e-mail:nick@lab-initio.com).

There is no free hunch. is quote by American psychologist and political scientist Robert P. Abelson (1928 - 2005). The quote is found on page 142 of his 1995 book "Statistics as a Principled Argument". It is referred to as "Abelson's Sixth Law" in a discussion of the generalizability of estimated effects.