Resource Library

A cartoon to teach the idea that the mean of a distribution is found by integrating xf(x).

Sampling Samba is a video that may be used to discuss and compare various methods of sampling. The methods described include random sampling, systematic sampling, stratified sampling, and cluster sampling. The video was written by Camilla Guatteri (SeeYouGee on You-Tube) and edited by Alessandro Pederzoli.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. is a famous quote of English historian Sir John Dalberg-Acton (1834 - 1902). Of course, Lord Acton was not referring to statistical hypothesis testing when he made the remark in an April 1887 letter to Mandell Creighton. However, the widespread knowledge of the quote by students makes it an interesting way to cover the idea that statistical significance is not the same as practical significance.

This four slide animation deals with the difficulty of drawing random samples. The cartoon animation was drawn 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.

Ellen Gundlach and Nancy Palaez (both of Purdue University) use Calibrated Peer Review, an online writing and peer evaluation program available from UCLA, to introduce statistical literacy to Nancy's freshman biology students and to bring a real-world context to statistical concepts for Ellen's introductory statistics classes in an NSF-funded project. CPR allows instructors in large classes to give their students frequent writing assignments without a heavy grading burden. Ellen and Nancy have their students read research journal articles on interesting subjects and use guiding questions to evaluate these articles for statistical content, experimental design features, and ethical concerns.

A song parody by Steve Snodergren (a.k.a. Al G Bra: see www.reverbnation.com/algbra) that may be sung to the tune of "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder. Much of the song relates to concepts about summary statistics and taking a cautious approach to interpreting such summaries. This song appears on Al G Bra's "Old-Time Radical" CD.

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

Submitting your spotlight presentation from USCOTS 2005 to CAUSEweb is an easy process, and you are in a prime position to submit your work! What better way to have your work showcased than in a peer-reviewed repository of contributions to statistics education? This Webinar will be an opportunity to talk about how to prepare your USCOTS spotlight for submission to CAUSEweb and to discuss the benefits of submission. Please join us to discuss how to put the spotlight on CAUSEweb.

This applet demonstrates the Binomial distribution by simulating Galton's Board, dropping balls through a triangular array of nails. When a ball hits a nail, it has a 50 percent chance of falling to the left or the right. Because Galton's Board consists of a series of experiments, the piles under the board are the sum of n random variables, where n is the number of rows of nails on the board.

... statistics - whatever their mathematical sophistication and elegance - cannot make bad variables into good ones. Quoted from "Analysis of Nominal Data" by H.T. Reynolds (Sage, 1984) p. 8