Resource Library

"The key to good decision making is evaluating the available information - the data - and combining it with your own estimates of pluses and minuses." A quote by Brown University economist Emily Fair Oster (1980 - ) that can be used in discussing the use of data in decision making or in discussing the Bayesian idea of updating prior knowledge with data. The quote is contained in an August 9, 2013 essay in the Wall Street Journal written by Dr. Oster.

A song to reflect on the excitement of discovering the discipline of statistics. The song is a parody of "walking in Memphis," the 1991 hit of Grammy-winning artist Marc Cohn. The lyrics were written by Lawrence Mark Lesser of University of Texas at El Paso who first published them in the August 2014 issue of Amstat News. This song could enhance an outreach context, a general celebration of statistics, or serve to overview a statistical literacy or introductory statistics class.

A poem that can be used in discussing how to critique a research study. The poem was written in 2015 by Professor Lawrence Mark Lesser from University of Texas at El Paso.

A joke to be used in discussing the assumption of normality in using the t-distribution for inference. The Joke was written in 2016 by Judah Lesser an AP statistics student from El Paso, Texas.

A poem for teaching about the Cramer-Rao lower bound on variance of estimators. The poem was written by Ming-Lun Ho, Chabot College. It won third place in the non-song category of the 2015 A-Mu-Sing competition.

A Limerick by Christine Kohnen (University of Richmond) and Eric S. van Gyzen (Dell) that can be used in teaching about the uses of the t-distribution in estimation and testing. The limerick was awarded first place in the non song category of the 2015 A-Mu-sing competition.

A video to dispel myths about Statistics and excite students early in a course. The lyrics and video were created by Scott Crawford from the University of Wyoming. The music is from the 2000 song "Where Are You, Christmas? " written by James Horner and Will Jennings for the movie "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". The video received an honorable mention in the video category of the 2013 CAUSE A-Mu-sing competition. Free for non-profit use in classroom and course website applications.

A video to teach about principles of Analysis of Variance. The lyrics and video were created by Scott Crawford from the University of Wyoming. The music is from the 1984 song "Hallelujah" by Canadian songwriter Leonard Cohen. The video took third place in the video category of the 2013 CAUSE A-Mu-sing competition. Free for non-profit use in classroom and course website applications.

A video to teach about the central limit theorem and various issues in one-sample hypothesis testing. The lyrics and video were created by Scott Crawford from the University of Wyoming. The music is from the 1988 song "I'm Gonna Be (500 miles)" by the Scottish band The Proclaimers. The video took second place in the video category of the 2013 CAUSE A-Mu-sing competition. Free for non-profit use in classroom and course website applications.

A poem for use in teaching that causation is not correlation and the Pearson Chi-Square test. The poem was written by Dr. Nyaradzo Mvududu of the Seattle Pacific University School of Education. The poem won a prize in the 2013 CAUSE A-Mu-sing competition.