Resource Library

Always expect to find at least one error when you proofread your own statistics. If you don't, you are probably making the same mistake twice. Quote of american demographer Cheryl Russell appearing in "Rules of Thumb" by Tom Parker (Houghton Mifflin, 1983) p. 124. Also to be found in "Statistically Speaking the dictionary of quotations" compiled by Carl Gaither and Alma Cavazos-Gaither p. 81

A cartoon that might be used in introducing scatterplots and correlation. 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.

This activity begins with an instructor demonstration followed by a student out-of-class assignment. Students will observe their instructor create a scatterplot and observe how the correlation coefficient changes when outlier points are added. Students are then given a follow up assignment, which guides them through the applet. In addition, the assignment provides insight about outliers and their effect on correlation. This activity will show exactly how outliers numerically change the correlation coefficient value and to what degree.

In this game activity, students match correlation values with plots generated by the applet. Competition in this game setting encourages students to become more involved in the classroom and attainment of learning objectives. This game is best if used in a lab setting, although it may be modified to fit other classroom situations.

The purpose of this activity is to enhance students' understanding of various descriptive measures. In particular, by completing this hands-on activity students will experience a visual interpretation of a mean, median, outlier, and the concept of distance-to-mean.

This lecture example discusses how two continuous variables relate to one another with a clinical example of the relationship between body mass and fasting blood sugar. It offers three questions to help readers visualize and interpret correlation coefficients.

A cartoon to teach about the value of a Placebo in experiments. 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.

A cartoon to teach about the importance of understanding interpretation over the hand calculation of statistics. 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.

A cartoon for teaching about the key caveats of correlation and regression. 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.

A cartoon using a classic example for teaching the idea that correlation does not imply causation. Cartoon by John Landers (www.landers.co.uk) based on an idea from Dennis Pearl and Deb Rumsey (The Ohio State University). Free to use in the classroom and on course web sites.