Resource Library

A cartoon to teach about using boxplots to summarize a distribution. 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.

The number of degrees of freedom is usually self-evident - except for the analysis of data that have not appeared in a textbook. A quote from M.I.T. professor of management David Durand (1912- 1996) Published in a letter to the editor of "The American Statistician" June, 1970 as part of a tongue-in-cheek "Dictionary for Statismagicians." The quote also appears in "Statistically Speaking: A dictionary of quotations" compiled by Carl Gaither and Alma Cavazos-Gaither.

He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts ... for support rather than illumination. A quote attributed to scottish writer Andrew Lang (1844-1912) in Evan Esar's "The Dictionary of Humerous Quotations". Dell Publishing, 1943. The quote also appears in "Statistically Speaking: A dictionary of quotations" compiled by Carl Gaither and Alma Cavazos-Gaither.

Song calls for the importance of chance, juxtaposed a variety of statistical terms. May be sung to the tune of "Give Peace a Chance" (John Lennon). Musical accompaniment realization and vocals are by Joshua Lintz from University of Texas at El Paso.

Asked about the power of advertising in research surveys, most agree that it works, but not on them. A quote by British Journalist and author Eric Clark from his book "The Want Makers: Inside the World of Advertising", Penguin Books (1988) page 13.

This NSF funded project provides worksheets and laboratories for introductory statistics. The overview page contains links to 9 worksheets that can be done without technology, which address the topics of obtaining data, summarizing data, probability, regression and correlation, sampling distributions, hypothesis testing and confidence intervals. The page also contains twelve laboratories that require the use of technology. Data sets are provided in Minitab format.

This text based website provides an explanation of some coincidences that are often discussed. It gives an explanation of the birthday problem along with a graphic display of the probability of birthday matches vs. the number of people included. It also discussess other popular coincidences such as the similarities between John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln. It goes on to discuss steaks of heads and tails along with random features of stocks and the stock market prices.

An interactive box plot applet that allows users to put in their own data that is part of a large collection of platform independent, interactive, java applets and activities for K-12 mathematics and teacher education.

Legal proceedings are like statistics. If you manipulate them, you can prove anything. A quote by Bristish-born Canadian novelist Arthur Hailey (1920 - 2004). The quote is found in the novel "Airpot" (1968; Doubleday, p. 385). The quote also appears in "Statistically Speaking: A dictionary of quotations" compiled by Carl Gaither and Alma Cavazos-Gaither.

This site contains 100 modules designed to introduce concepts in statistics. The modules are divided into categories such as Descriptive Statistics, Inferential Statistics, Related Measures, Enumeration Statistics, and ANOVA. Click the green button on the side to start the modules, then click "Main Menu" at the top to see a list of topics. Topics include Describing Numbers, Normal Curve, Sampling Distributions, Hypothesis Testing, Regression, and Chi-Square. The site also includes a glossary, statistical tables and simulations, and a personalized progress report. Key Words: Collection; Central Tendency; Spread; Correlation.