Resource Library

A quote that might help in a discussion of the value of observational over experimental when the Hawthorne effect is important. The quote is by American cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901-1978). The quote is found in her book Blackberry Winter (1972).

A cartoon to be used in discussing the value of stratified sampling (or blocking in experiments) with diverse populations. The cartoon was used in the January 2017 CAUSE cartoon caption contest (see "The Elevator I" for the cartoon with the winning caption). This caption is a shortened version of a caption submitted anonymously to the contest. The cartoon was drawn by British cartoonist John Landers based on an idea from Dennis Pearl of Penn State University.

A song to be used in discussing experimental design and the importance of control, replication, randomization, and blocking. The song was written by Laura Krajewski, an undergraduate student at University of Toronto, Mississauga and took first place in the 2015 A-mu-sing contest. May be sung to the tune of "I Love You Will Still Sound the Same" by Oh Honey.

A cartoon for teaching about using the t-distribution for inference when the standard deviation is unknown. The cartoon was created by Karen Banks from University of Indiana using the software at www.bitstrips.com. The cartoon also won a prize in the CAUSE 2013 A-Mu-sing contest.

A song that reviews several statistical topics written by University of Texas at El Paso professor Lawrence M. Lesser. The song is a parody of "We Are the Champions" written by Freddy Mercury that was popularized by the British rock group Queen in their 1977 Album "ewe of the World."

If the experiments be quite simple the question may be without great importance; but when their requirements as to time or expenditure come into account the problem arises, how the observations should be chosen in order that a limited number of them may give the maximum amount of knowledge. is a quote by Danish Statistician Kirstine Smith (1878 - 1939). The quote appears in the introduction to her 1918 article on optimal experimental design in the journal Biometrika (the first such article in the literature).

I keep saying that the sexy job in the next 10 years will be statisticians is a quote from American economist Hal R. Varian (1947 -) quoted in an August 5, 2009 "New York Times" article "For Today's Graduate, Just One Word: Statistics," written by reporter Steve Lohr. The article may be found online at www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/technology/06stats.html

A joke that might be used in discussing correlation - especially in health studies. The joke is adapted from a joke told by comedic magician Omar Covarrubias. The revised joke was written by Larry Lesser, University of Texas at El Paso, for use in the statistics classroom.

Every time man makes a new experiment he always learns more. He cannot learn less. is a quote of American inventor and author Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983). The quote appears in his 1963 book "Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth".

A cartoon for use in discussions about the value of using a placebo in an experiment. The cartoon is the work of Theresa McCracken and appears as #7813 on McHumor.com Free for non-profit use in statistics course such as in lectures and course websites.