Resource Library

A cartoon to be used for discussing the value of data visualizations. The cartoon was used in the August 2016 CAUSE Cartoon Caption Contest. The winning caption was submitted by Barb Osyk from the University of Akron, while the drawing was created by John Landers using an idea from Dennis Pearl. Other honorable mentions that rose to the top of the judging included "I told you exploded pie charts are dangerous!" written by Aaron Profitt from God’s Bible School and College; "Liar liar, data on fire," written by Mickey Dunlap from University of Tennessee at Martin: and "I warned you about using hot deck imputation when you have so much missing data!" written by Elizabeth Stasny, from The Ohio State University. (to use this cartoon with an alternate caption simply download and replace the caption using a bolded comic sans font)

A cartoon to be used for discussing the meaning of probability statements in the media such as when you hear there's a 25% chance of rain in the forecast. The cartoon was used in the July 2016 CAUSE Cartoon Caption Contest. The winning caption was submitted by Michael Huberty from University of Minnesota., a student at Belgrade High School. The drawing was created by John Landers using an idea from Dennis Pearl. Other honorable mentions for captions that rose to the top of the judging that month included "A data set with seasonality" written by Larry Lesser from University of Texas at El Paso; "ANOVA – Analysis of Varied Atmospheres," written by Deb Sedik from Bucks County Community College: and "Variability matters!" written by Debmalya Nandy, a student at Penn State University. (to use this cartoon with an alternate caption simply download and replace the caption using a bolded comic sans font)

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.