Resource Library

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.

"Psephologist" is a poem by Scottish poet Eveline Pye from Glasgow Caledonin University. The poem was originally published in the April 2015 issue of the Herald. "Psephologist" is about the importance of polling in understanding public opinion. The poem might be used in course discussions about the affect that polls in the media might have on public opinion.

"The Law of Statistics" is a poem by Scottish poet Eveline Pye from Glasgow Caledonin University. The poem was originally published in the February 2016 issue of Talking Writing magazine. "The Law of Statistics" is about the case of Sally Clark, who was wrongly convicted in England of killing two of her children based on an error in "expert" testimony regarding the probability of two crib deaths in the same family. The poem might be used in course discussions about conditional probability and Bayes Theorem.

A short joke that might be used in discussing the common statistical model that observations follow different normal curves under different treatments. The joke was written by Lawrence Lesser from University of Texas at El Paso in 2016.

The textbook, "Statistics: Unlocking the Power of Data," by Lock, Lock, Lock, Lock, and Lock, webpage has a collection of data sets which are used in their textbook. Even without the textbook, the variables are well named, and it is relatively easy to tell what the variables represent.