Are no probabilities to be accepted, merely because they are not certainties. Quote of English novelist Jane Austen (1775 - 1817) appearing in her book "Sense and Sensibility, volume 1" (T. Egerton, 1811) p. 41. The quote was spoken by the character Mrs. Dashwood in a conversation with her daughter Elinor. Also to be found in "Statistically Speaking the dictionary of quotations" compiled by Carl Gaither and Alma Cavazos-Gaither p. 159
A cartoon to teach the idea that sampling variability depends on the size of the sample, and not on the size of the population (as long as the sample is a small part of the population). Cartoon drawn by British cartoonist John Landers based on an idea from Dennis Pearl. Free to use in the classroom and for course websites.
A cartoon that might be used at the beginning of a term to joke about student expectations for a statistics course. 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.
The idea that the examination of a relatively small number of randomly selected individuals can furnish dependable information about the characteristics of a vast unseen universe is an idea so powerful that only familiarity makes it cease to be exciting Is a quote from American Educational Statistician Helen Mary Walker (1891 - 1983). Helen Walker was the first women to serve as the president of the American Statistical Association and this quote is from her December 27, 1944 presidential address at the 104th annual meeting of the ASA in Washington, D.C. The full address may be found in the "Journal of the American Statistical Association" (1945; vol. 40, #229 p. 1-10).
A cartoon to teach the idea that the mean is affected by outliers while the median is not. 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.
To us, probability is the very guide of life is the modern translation of a quote from Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 B.C.E. - 43 B.C.E.) found in his 45 B.C.E. work "De Natura Deorum".
This song describes the pitfalls of using a steep prior in a Bayesian analysis that is not based on an underlying understanding of the problem. The lyrics were written by Mark Glickman and may be sung to the tune of The Four Seasons' 1975 song "December, 1963 (Oh What a Night)" written by Bob Gaudio and Judy Parker. The mp3 was recorded July 9, 2008 (Mark Glickman - vocals).
These three haikus were written as part of an activity in Paul Roback's introductory statistics class at St. Olaf College in February, 2009 ("World of chaos" by Carolyn Raitt; "Reality bites" by Hannah Johnson; "Is it you or me" by Nicole Villa). As a collection, the haikus won first place in the poetry category of the 2009 A-Mu-sing competition. The entire class is shown in this picture: http://www.causeweb.org/resources/fun/pics/Roback_class.jpg
This song extols the value of Bayesian thinking. The song was written by Mark Glickman and may be sung to the tune of The Zombie's 1968 song "Time of the Season" written by Rod Argent. The mp3 was recorded on May 24 2008 (Mark Glickman - vocals). This song was first performed live in June 2006 at "Eighth Valencia World Meeting on Bayesian Statistics" in Benidorm, Spain, by Mark Glickman, Brad Carlin, Jennifer Hill, and David Heckerman.
A cartoon to teach about the need to think carefully about the assumptions underlying a statistical model (also uses the idea that you can multiply chances for independent events to find the chance that they all occur). Drawn by British cartoonist John Landers based on an idea from Dennis earl. Free to use in the classroom and on course websites.