Resource Library

A cartoon to be used for discussing the history and use of statistics in polling. The cartoon was used in the October 2016 CAUSE Cartoon Caption Contest. The winning caption was submitted by Alan Russell from Elon University, while the drawing was created by John Landers using an idea from Dennis Pearl. A second winning caption "Thank you for being part of this Gallop Poll!" written by Larry Lesser from University of Texas at El Paso is well-suited for starting a conversation about the history and use of statistics in polling (see "Cartoon: The XYLOPH Survey I") Honorable mentions that rose to the top of the judging in the October caption contest included "XYLOPH Poll Results: A majority of the creatures on the green and blue planet are brown neigh-sayers" written by Anna Peterson from Iowa State University; "So your answer to the question, 'Do aliens exist?' would be Neigh?" written by Erin Hodgess of University of Houston; "Sorry 'neigh'bor ... I only participate in Gallop's surveys" written by Jeff Collier from LCM High School; and "Based on the findings of this survey all creatures on this planet must have 4 legs, a tail, and neigh in answer to any question..., how convenient that I met one of them on my first try!," written by Catharina Beussen, from Alisal High School.

A cartoon to be used for discussing the history and use of statistics in polling. The cartoon was used in the October 2016 CAUSE Cartoon Caption Contest. The winning caption was submitted by Larry Lesser from The University of Texas at El Paso, while the drawing was created by John Landers using an idea from Dennis Pearl. A second winning caption "If your sample isn't drawn correctly, it will be flawed even if it came straight from the horse's mouth!" was by Alan Russell from Elon University is well-suited for starting a conversation about of the importance of design in surveys.(see "Cartoon: The XYLOPH Survey II") Honorable mentions that rose to the top of the judging in the October caption contest included "XYLOPH Poll Results: A majority of the creatures on the green and blue planet are brown neigh-sayers" written by Anna Peterson from Iowa State University; "So your answer to the question, 'Do aliens exist?' would be Neigh?" written by Erin Hodgess of University of Houston; "Sorry 'neigh'bor ... I only participate in Gallop's surveys" written by Jeff Collier from LCM High School; and "Based on the findings of this survey all creatures on this planet must have 4 legs, a tail, and neigh in answer to any question..., how convenient that I met one of them on my first try!," written by Catharina Beussen, from Alisal High School.

A cartoon to be used for discussing z-scores. The cartoon was used in the September 2016 CAUSE Cartoon Caption Contest. The winning caption was submitted by Amy Nowacki from Cleveland Clinic/Case Western Reserve University, while the drawing was created by John Landers using an idea from Dennis Pearl. A second winning caption "Even a crash course in model-fitting will need to consider distributions other than normal," was by Eugenie Jackson, a student at University of Wyoming, is well-suited for starting a conversation about the normality assumption in statistical models.(see "Cartoon: Pile-UP I") Honorable mentions that rose to the top of the judging in the September caption contest included "Big pile-up at percentile marker -1.96 on the bell-curve. You might want to take the chi-square curve to avoid these negative values," written by Mickey Dunlap from University of Tennessee at Martin; "Call the nonparametric team! This is not normal!” written by Semra Kilic-Bahi of Colby-Sawyer College; "I assumed the driving conditions today would be normal!" written by John Vogt of Newman University; and "CAUTION: Z- values seem smaller than they appear. Slow down & watch for stopped traffic reading these values,” written by Kevin Schirra, a student at University of Akron.

A cartoon to be used for discussing the normality assumption in statistical models. The cartoon was used in the September 2016 CAUSE Cartoon Caption Contest. The winning caption was submitted by Eugenie Jackson, a student at University of Wyoming while the drawing was created by John Landers using an idea from Dennis Pearl. A second winning caption was by Amy Nowacki from Cleveland Clinic/Case Western Reserve University whose entry “The dangers of driving more than 3 standard deviations below the speed limit,” would be useful in a classroom discussion of z-scores (see "Cartoon: Pile-UP II") Honorable mentions that rose to the top of the judging in the September caption contest included “Big pile-up at percentile marker -1.96 on the bell-curve. You might want to take the chi-square curve to avoid these negative values,” written by Mickey Dunlap from University of Tennessee at Martin; “Call the nonparametric team! This is not normal!” written by Semra Kilic-Bahi of Colby-Sawyer College; “I assumed the driving conditions today would be normal!” written by John Vogt of Newman University; and “CAUTION: Z- values seem smaller than they appear. Slow down & watch for stopped traffic reading these values,” written by Kevin Schirra, a student at University of Akron.

A cartoon to be used for discussing the value of data visualizations. The cartoon was used in the August 2016 CAUSE Cartoon Caption Contest. The winning caption was submitted by Barb Osyk from the University of Akron, while the drawing was created by John Landers using an idea from Dennis Pearl. Other honorable mentions that rose to the top of the judging included "I told you exploded pie charts are dangerous!" written by Aaron Profitt from God’s Bible School and College; "Liar liar, data on fire," written by Mickey Dunlap from University of Tennessee at Martin: and "I warned you about using hot deck imputation when you have so much missing data!" written by Elizabeth Stasny, from The Ohio State University. (to use this cartoon with an alternate caption simply download and replace the caption using a bolded comic sans font)

A cartoon to be used for discussing the meaning of probability statements in the media such as when you hear there's a 25% chance of rain in the forecast. The cartoon was used in the July 2016 CAUSE Cartoon Caption Contest. The winning caption was submitted by Michael Huberty from University of Minnesota., a student at Belgrade High School. The drawing was created by John Landers using an idea from Dennis Pearl. Other honorable mentions for captions that rose to the top of the judging that month included "A data set with seasonality" written by Larry Lesser from University of Texas at El Paso; "ANOVA – Analysis of Varied Atmospheres," written by Deb Sedik from Bucks County Community College: and "Variability matters!" written by Debmalya Nandy, a student at Penn State University. (to use this cartoon with an alternate caption simply download and replace the caption using a bolded comic sans font)

A joke written by Larry Lesser from The University of Texas at El Paso to highlight the difference between concepts of central tendency and variation.

A joke to use discussing the broad types of research that might go under the name "Survey". The joke was written by Larry Lesser (The University of Texas at El Paso) and Dennis Pearl (Penn State University).

A "haiku" poem written by Larry Lesser from The University of Texas at El Paso. The poem is a playful vehicle to help introduce the chi-square test for contingency tables.

A one-liner to be used in discussions about how the statistical profession is commonly ranked high in terms of factors like demand, job satisfaction, and salary (or about the difficulty in finding a valid measurement of prestige).