CHANCE is copublished quarterly by the American Statistical Association and Springer Science + Business Media, LLC. The magazine is designed for anyone who has an interest in the analysis of data, informally highlighting sound statistical practice. CHANCE is not a technical magazine, but rather a cultural record of an evolving field, intended to entertain as well as inform. Since its creation in 1988, CHANCE has covered such topics as the 1990 census adjustment and the redesigned population survey, sports, the environment, DNA evidence in the courts, a variety of medical issues -- even how to win on "Jeopardy." -- CHANCE offers a unique opportunity to reach beyond statistics professionals to a more general audience.
A song parody to be sung about one's favorite statistics course. The lyrics won an honorable mention in the song category of the 2011 CAUSE A-Mu-sing contest and were written by Robert Carver of Stonehill College. The song may be sung to the tune of George and Ira Gershwin's 1937 classic "They Can't Take That Away from Me." Musical accompaniment realization and vocals are by Joshua Lintz from University of Texas at El Paso.
A song about the important contributions of Karl Pearson, Charles Spearmen, William S. Gosset, and Ronald Fisher. Lyrics written by Nyaradzo Mvududu from Seattle Pacific University. May sing to the tune of John Lennon's 1971 song "Imagine." The lyrics were awarded third place in the song category of the 2011 CAUSE A-Mu-sing competition. Musical accompaniment realization are by Joshua Lintz and vocals are by Mariana Sandoval from University of Texas at El Paso.
Three Haiku related to regression including the topics of checking assumptions, dealing with non-linear patterns, and partitioning sums of squares. The Haiku were written by Elizabeth Stasny of The Ohio State University and were awarded a tie for second place in the poetry category of the 2011 CAUSE A-Mu-sing competition.
A cartoon for use in discussing the issues of causation versus correlation and the assumptions underlying Structural Equations Modeling (SEM) for students who have been introduced to that technique. The idea for the cartoon came from David Lane of Rice University and the cartoon was drawn by Ben Shabad, a student at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. The cartoon was awarded a tie for first place in the cartoon category of the 2011 CAUSE A-Mu-sing competition. For for use in statistics courses at non-profit institutions.
This simulation allows you to roll two dice and compare empirical and probability histograms for the sum or product of the two outcomes.
A song lyric by Dennis Pearl of The Ohio State University written as a parody of the 1960 tune "Hit the Road Jack" by Percy Mayfield; made popular by Ray Charles in his 1961 recording. What to say in class before song: There are times when the mode may be preferred to the mean - especially if the concept of interest is tied to understanding the most likely situation. You might remember that Ray Charles used to sing a song about this... In a class where Bayesian and Maximum Likelihood methodology has been introduced you might add the following after the first sentence "For example when you assume a uniform non-informative prior for a parameter, then the m.l.e. coincides with the mode of the posterior distribution - and the mean of the posterior distribution may not be a good estimate." Tip for Teaching: The song takes up a bit too much class time for delivering its message. Thus, for in-class use, it is recommended to play only the first verse or three. Musical accompaniment realization and male vocals are by Joshua Lintz, female vocals are by Mariana Sandoval from University of Texas at El Paso.