Resource Library

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).

A cartoon to be used for discussing how outliers can have an influential effect on statistics. The cartoon was used in the June 2016 CAUSE Cartoon Caption Contest. The winning caption was submitted by Albert Koenig, a student at Belgrade High School. The drawing was created by John Landers using an idea from Dennis Pearl. Other ideas for using this cartoon in teaching include focusing on assumptions (do we really know the team with the tallest player is ahead?); the selection of the best measure to summarize data (mean, median, or maximum in this case); or on the importance of variability in understanding data.

A short joke to be used in discussing the history of polls and the innovations brought to the field by George Gallup. The joke was written in 2016 by Larry Lesser, University of Texas at El Paso with assistance from Dennis Pearl.

"Data Mining" is a poem by Scottish poet Eveline Pye from Glasgow Caledonin University. The poem was originally published in 1991 in the international literary journal Orbis. "Data Mining" might be used in course discussions about descriptive measures and graphics that help to illuminate a story arising from data.

"Numerical Landscape" is a poem by Scottish poet Eveline Pye from Glasgow Caledonin University. The poem was originally published in the September 2011 issue of the bimonthly magazine Significance, in an article about Eveline Pye's statistical poetry. "Numerical Landscape" might be used in course discussions about probability models and the importance of recognizing the assumptions that underly them.

"Black Swan" is a poem by Scottish poet Eveline Pye from Glasgow Caledonin University. The poem was originally published in the September 2011 issue of the bimonthly magazine Significance, in an article about Eveline Pye's statistical poetry. "Black Swan" might be used in course discussions of the idea that just because an event has not been observed to date does not mean that it is impossible (see Taleb's Black Swan Theory).

"Solving Problems" is a poem by Scottish poet Eveline Pye from Glasgow Caledonin University. The poem was originally published in the September 2011 issue of the bimonthly magazine Significance, in an article about Eveline Pye's statistical poetry. "Solving Problems" might be used in course discussions of the importance of practice with real world data in developing statistical thinking, reasoning, and problem solving skills.