Resource Library

A song to be used in discussing the Regression Effect and the Regression Fallacy.  The lyrics were written by Lawrence M. Lesser from The University of Texas at El Paso and may be sung to the tune of the 1977 song "Slip Slidin' Away" by Paul Simon. The song first appeared in the August 2017 Amstat News.

A joke to help in recalling the purpose of Correlation and Regression. The joke was written in 2017 by Dennis Pearl from Penn State University.

A joke that might be used in a discussion of the problem of using a simple linear regression to extrapolate beyond the range of the data (where it is unlikely that the linear relationship would continue to hold). The joke was written by Dennis Pearl from Penn State University.

A video for use in teaching about the dangers of extrapolating well beyond the range of the data in linear regression. The lyrics and Powerpoint components of the video were written by Michael Posner while the vocals were done by Reena Freedman of Villanova University and won first place in the video category of the 2017 A-mu-sing contest. The lyrics parody the song "How Far I'll Go" from the Disney animated feature film Moana (sung by Alessia Cara for the movie soundtrack).

A game to help in the active learning of concepts in experimental design, regression, and significance testing. Shapesplosion is an on-line game in which a person is expected to place specifically shaped pegs into the appropriate holes within a short time period. In this project, students are asked to use the Shapesplosion game to design an experiment and collect data. This game is specifically designed so that students have the opportunity to develop and test their own unique research question. You can leave all the variables blank when you are simply trying out the game, however, if you want to find your score is the database of results, you will need to select the Participant Info box. This resource is particularly suitable for project oriented teaching and is part of the Stat2Labs collection at Grinnell College that includes instructor notes and student handouts created with funding from NSF-DUE grant #1043814 (Shonda Kuiper, PI).

A game for use in the active learning of linear regression and sampling biases. TigerSAMPLING is almost identical to TigerSTAT. However in the TigerSAMPLING game there are additional questions that emphasize BIAS and GENERALIZABILITY. These games collect data and explore models for estimating the age of a Siberian tiger. In this game, students act as researchers on a national preserve where they are expected to catch tigers, collect data, analyze their data (using the simple linear regression on transformed data), and draw appropriate conclusions. The TigetSTAT labs handouts were created by Rod Sturdivant (Ohio State University), Kevin Cummiskey (West Point) and John Jackson (West Point). Tietronix Software developed the game. This resource is part of the Stat2Labs collection.

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 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 the interpretation of a regression equation (for example interpreting the intercept when it is well beyond the range of the data). The cartoon is #1823 in the web comic Piled Higher and Deeper by Panamanian cartoonist Jorge Cham (1976- ): see www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1823. Free for use in classrooms and course websites with acknowledgement (i.e. "Piled Higher and Deeper" by Jorge Cham, www.phdcomics.com)

The textbook, "Statistics: Unlocking the Power of Data," by Lock, Lock, Lock, Lock, and Lock, webpage has a collection of data sets which are used in their textbook. Even without the textbook, the variables are well named, and it is relatively easy to tell what the variables represent.