Observational Studies

  • A song that can be used in discussing lurking variables - unobserved variables that may drive the relationships seen in the data. The lyrics were written by Mary McLellan from Aledo High School in Aledo, Texas as one of several dozen songs created for her AP statistics course. The song may be sung to the tune of the 2013 song “Happy,” written by Pharrell Williams for the animated movie Despicable Me 2. Also, an accompanying video may be found at
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWf-8_UjUyg

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  • A song that may be used in discussing how confounding variables may provide alternate explanations for the data making causal interpretations difficult. The lyrics were written by Mary McLellan from Aledo High School in Aledo, Texas as one of several dozen songs created for her AP statistics course. The song may be sung to the tune of the mid-20th century folk song 99 Bottles of Beer. Also, an accompanying video may be found at
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-daUPdUV8C4

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  • A song to be used in discussing the idea that correlation does not imply causation. The original music and lyrics were written in 2017 by Lawrence Mark Lesser from The University of Texas at El Paso and won first place in the song category of the 2017 A-mu-sing contest.
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  • A cartoon to be used for discussing the value of stratification in reducing the variability of population estimates (and the difficulty in doing so when the population weights are unknown).. The cartoon was used in the May 2017 CAUSE Cartoon Caption Contest. The winning caption was submitted by Jim Alloway of EMSQ Associates. The drawing was created by British cartoonist John Landers based on an idea from Dennis Pearl of Penn State University. Two honorable mentions that rose to the top of the judging in the May competition may be found at https://www.causeweb.org/cause/resources/fun/cartoons/product-testing-ii written by Larry Lesser from University of Texas at El Paso and at https://www.causeweb.org/cause/resources/fun/cartoons/product-testing-iii written by John Bailer from Miami University.
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  • A game for use in the active learning of linear regression and sampling biases. TigerSAMPLING is almost identical to TigerSTAT. However in the TigerSAMPLING game there are additional questions that emphasize BIAS and GENERALIZABILITY. These games collect data and explore models for estimating the age of a Siberian tiger. In this game, students act as researchers on a national preserve where they are expected to catch tigers, collect data, analyze their data (using the simple linear regression on transformed data), and draw appropriate conclusions. The TigetSTAT labs handouts were created by Rod Sturdivant (Ohio State University), Kevin Cummiskey (West Point) and John Jackson (West Point). Tietronix Software developed the game. This resource is part of the Stat2Labs collection.
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  • This site has the data and shows the code you would use to replicate the examples in Applied Longitudinal Data Analysis: Modeling Change and Event Occurrence, by Judith D. Singer and John B. Willett. It has code in SAS, R, Stata, SPSS, HLM, MLwiN, and Mplus.
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  • A quote to motivate discussions of the importance of statistics for critical thinking. The quote is by Deborah J. Rumsey (1961 - ), The Ohio State University. The quote appears in Chapter 1 page 10 of her book, Statistics For Dummies 2nd edition, 2011
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  • A quote to initiate a discussion about critiquing statistical issues in public policy statements seen in the media. The quote is from American writer and public policy researcher Kathleen Geier (1963 - ) and may be found in her article "On the importance of statistical literacy," in Washington Monthly May 12, 2012.
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  • A quote that might help in a discussion of the value of observational over experimental when the Hawthorne effect is important. The quote is by American cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901-1978). The quote is found in her book Blackberry Winter (1972).
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  • "Chingola Tankhouse" is a poem by Scottish poet Eveline Pye from Glasgow Caledonin University. The poem was written about her experiences working as an Operational Research Analyst for Nchanga Consolidated Copper Mines in Zambia from 1975 to 1983. The poem was originally published in 1995 in Scottish literary publication West Coast Magazine. "Chingola Tankhouse" might be used in course discussions of the importance of controlling for important factors in observational studies in order to draw important conclusions.
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