Statistics Education

  • The lyrics for “The Statistician’s Song” were written by Paul Velleman from Cornell University as a parody of Tom Lehrer’s 1974 “The Professor’s Song” published in American Mathematical Monthly and sung to the tune of “If You Give Me Your Attention,” from the play Princess Ida by Gilbert and Sullivan. The song won third place in the Song/Video category of the 2021 A-mu-sing Contest. The song facilitates discussion of the characteristics of good teaching in statistics (e.g. stressing real world applications and gaining insights from evidence over focusing on esoteric theory and memorization of formulas).

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  • This lyric, written by Larry Lesser (The University of Texas at El Paso) and Michael Posner (Villanova University) and recorded/sung by Lesser in 2019, won fourth place in the 2019 A-mu-sing contest. The song may be sung to the tune of "She Blinded Me With Science" by Thomas Dolby and is designed to introduce some key terms and concepts in data science.

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  • A statistically-themed crossword puzzle written by Indy Wink, a high school student at Germantown Friends School in Pennsylvania. The puzzle won an honorable mention in the 2025 A-mu-sing Contest (note that an instructor must be logged into CAUSEweb.org to view the solutions to the puzzle).  An instructor might ask students to try out the puzzle for fun and then challenge students to write their own clues for statistical words and develop their own statistics puzzle using one of the free online crossword puzzle makers.

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  • A 3rd-place winner in the 2025 A-mu-sing Contest, “College GAISE” was written, performed, and recorded in 2025 by Lawrence Mark Lesser of The University of Texas at El Paso.  The song describes key components of the College Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education and provides extra value for those studying the GAISE report by providing the numbered guideline referred to in each line of the song - with the numbers taken from Perrett, J. (2024). Revising the Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction of Statistics Education (GAISE) College Report. Scatterplot, 1(1).

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  • These clerihew poems (chronologically by statistician) written by Lawrence Mark Lesser from The University of Texas at El Paso were written in 2023 and appeared in the April 2024 Amstat News or the July 2024 Journal of Humanistic Mathematics..  Each clerihew poem takes a famous statistician and (like all clerihew poetry) starts with their name and finishes the two couplets with playful or quirky details about their career or life.  Such poems could be used to humanize the class and because of the short simple form involved students could be invited to create their own about other statisticians. 

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  • A poem written in 2023 by Larry Lesser from The University of Texas at El Paso that can offer a vehicle for students to reflect on parallels (in language or process) between poetry and statistics.  The poem was first published with commentary in the Autumn 2023 issue of Consilience. 

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  • A cartoon that provides a reminder of the ubiquitous importance of data in Statistics & Data Science. The cartoon was used in the April 2022 CAUSE cartoon caption contest and the winning caption was written by Larry Lesser from the University of Texas at El Paso.  The cartoon was drawn by British cartoonist John Landers (www.landers.co.uk) based on an idea by Dennis Pearl from Penn State University.

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  • A cartoon providing a nice way to introduce the value of statistics in studying the spread of infectious diseases. The cartoon was used in the August 2020 CAUSE cartoon caption contest and the winning caption was written by Jim Alloway of EMSQ Associates. The cartoon was drawn by British cartoonist John Landers (www.landers.co.uk) based on an idea by Dennis Pearl from Penn State University.

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  • A cartoon to initiate a discuss about ethics in statistics analysis and reporting. The cartoon was drawn by American cartoonist Jon Carter in 2012.

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  • A cartoon to inmate a discussion about how it is more important to learn themes and concepts rather than individual facts. (the latter being a never ending list that no one can mange - the former being applicable to new situations). The cartoon was drawn by American cartoonist Jon Carter in 2012.

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