Resource Library

This activity illustrates the convergence of long run relative frequency to the true probability. The psychic ability of a student from the class is studied using an applet. The student is asked to repeatedly guess the outcome of a virtual coin toss. The instructor enters the student's guesses and the applet plots the percentage of correct answers versus the number of attempts. With the applet, many guesses can be entered very quickly. If the student is truly a psychic, the percentage correct will converge to a value above 0.5.

This group activity illustrates the concepts of size and power of a test through simulation. Students simulate binomial data by repeatedly rolling a ten-sided die, and they use their simulated data to estimate the size of a binomial test. They carry out further simulations to estimate the power of the test. After pooling their data with that of other groups, they construct a power curve. A theoretical power curve is also constructed, and the students discuss why there are differences between the expected and estimated curves. Key words: Power, size, hypothesis testing, binomial distribution

This lecture example reviews the concept of CIs and their relationship to P values. Tables are provided in pdf format.

A cartoon using a classic quote attributed to Benjamin Disraeli by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens). Useful for illustrating that statistical methods designed to find truths in data can be abused to the opposite effect. 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 probability rules for disjoint events and how they do not apply to events that overlap. Cartoon by John Landers (www.landers.co.uk) based on an idea from Paul Rosile (Franklin County, Ohio Board of Health). Free to use in the classroom and on course web sites.

A cartoon to help emphasize that success in understanding statistics relies on practice. 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 distributional assumptions in linear models. 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 that confidence intervals do not always contain the true parameter. 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 interpretation of confidence in inference. 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 providing measures of error, like the Margin-of-Error, with estimates. 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.