Resource Library

A cartoon for use in teaching about the Normal distribution. The cartoon was drawn by Australian epidemiologist Matthew Freeman of the Public Health Information Development Unit at the University of Adelaide. It is free for use on course websites or in the classroom provided author acknowledgement is given (e.g. leave copyright statement on the image). Commercial uses should contact the copyright holder. The cartoon was also published under the title "A visual comparison of normal and paranormal distributions" in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health (2006) 60(1):6

A song to teach the idea the difference between the population and sample correlation. The lyrics are by Lawrence M Lesser, University of Texas at El Paso in collaboration with Dennis K Pearl, The Ohio State University. The song may be sung to the tune of the children's folk song "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and like that song may be sung in rounds. Dr. Lesser sings the song in an accompanying MP3 audio file.

A song that reviews several statistical topics written by University of Texas at El Paso professor Lawrence M. Lesser. The song is a parody of "We Are the Champions" written by Freddy Mercury that was popularized by the British rock group Queen in their 1977 Album "ewe of the World."

Partial to You (A multiple Regression Love Song) is an original song about partial correlation in multiple regression by University of Texas at El Paso Professor Lawrence Mark Lesser. The song won third place in the song category in the 2013 CAUSE A-Mu-sing contest. Dr. Lesser sings the song in the accompanying MP3 audio file.

A song that might be used in pre-service courses for statistics teachers (or professional development workshops) to point out why using technology is preferred to training students to use Normal Probability Tables. The lyrics were composed by Robert Carver of Stonehill College. May be sung to the tune of the "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" written by Schoenberg and Kretmer for the play Les Miserables. The lyrics won an honorable mention in the CAUSE 2013 A-Mu-sing contest. Musical accompaniment realization and vocals are by Joshua Lintz from University of Texas at El Paso.

A cartoon for teaching about using the t-distribution for inference when the standard deviation is unknown. The cartoon was created by Karen Banks from University of Indiana using the software at www.bitstrips.com. The cartoon also won a prize in the CAUSE 2013 A-Mu-sing contest.

September 14, 2010 T&L webinar presented by Thomas Moore(Grinnell College) and hosted by Jackie Miller(The Ohio State University). Permutation tests and randomization tests were introduced almost a century ago, well before inexpensive, high-speed computing made them feasible to use. Fisher and Pitman showed the two-sample t-test could approximate the permutation test in a two independent groups experiment. Today many statistics educators are returning to the permutation test as a more intuitive way to teach hypothesis testing. In this presentation, I will show an interesting teaching example about primate behavior that illustrates how simple permutation tests are to use, even with a messier data set that admits of no obvious and easy-to-compute approximation.

October 12, 2010 T&L webinar presented by George Cobb(Mount Holyoke College) and hosted by Leigh Slauson (Capital University). What's the best way to introduce students of mathematics to statistics? Tradition offers two main choices: a variant of the standard "Stat 101" course, or some version of the two-semester sequence in probability and mathematical statistics. I hope to convince participants to think seriously about a third option: the theory and applications of linear models as a first statistics course for sophomore math majors. Rather than subject you to a half-hour polemic, however, I plan to talk concretely about multiple regression models and methodological challenges that arise in connection with AAUP data relating faculty salaries to the percentage of women faculty, and to present also a short geometric proof of the Gauss-Markov Theorem.

November 9, 2010 T&L webinar presented by Jiyoon Park and Audbjorg Bjornsdottir (University of Minnesota) and hosted by Jackie Miller (The Ohio State University). This webinar presents the development of a new instrument designed to assess the practices and beliefs of teachers of introductory statistics courses. The Statistics Teaching Inventory (STI) was developed to be used as a national survey to assess changes in teaching over time as well as for use in evaluating professional development activities. We will describe the instrument and the validation process, and invite comments and suggestions about its content and potential use in research and evaluation studies.

Conducting data analysis is like drinking a fine wine. It is important to swirl and sniff the wine, to unpack the complex bouquet and to appreciate the experience. Gulping the wine doesn't work. is a quote by British quantitative cognitive psychologist Daniel B. Wright. The quote is found in his 2003 article "Making friends with your data: Improving how statistics are conducted and reported" in the "British Journal of Educational Psychology", volume 73 page 123-136.