A cartoon that highlights the importance of details in designing an experiment that have important repercussions for one’s ability to interpret the results. The cartoon was used in the May 2022 CAUSE cartoon caption contest and the winning caption was written by Jim Alloway from the 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.
A cartoon that can be used to introduce the value of cross-over designs for reducing variability. The cartoon was used in the March 2021 CAUSE cartoon caption contest and the winning caption was written by Kelly Spoon from San Diego Mesa College. The cartoon was drawn by British cartoonist John Landers (www.landers.co.uk) based on an idea by Dennis Pearl from Penn State University.
A cartoon that can be used to discuss designs when one factor is harder to vary than others (and the root of the term "split-plot design" in agriculture). The cartoon was used in the December 2020 CAUSE cartoon caption contest and the winning caption was written by Larry Lesser from the 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.
The lyrics of "A Mouse Analyzing Just One," were written in 2016 by Dennis Pearl from Penn State University. The song may be sung to the tune of the traditional folk song, "The House of the Rising Sun," popularized by the British Rock band the Animals in 1964. The song is meant to convey the problems with using biological material from a single animal in experiments. Audio of the parody was produced and sung by students in the commercial music program of The University of Teas at El Paso.
The Islands is a free, innovative, online virtual human population created by Dr Michael Bulmer from the University of Queensland. The Islands supports the teaching of statistics through data investigations by providing students with a realistic virtual world where they can propose statistical questions, design investigations and collect the necessary data for statistical analysis and interpretation. The wide range of data and tasks available on the Islands caters to many scientific areas and student interests. Must create an account to access this virtual world.
A joke to help in a discussion of how a well designed experiment helps to reduce the variance of the response variable. The Joke was written by Larry Lesser (The University of Texas at El Paso) and Dennis Pearl (Penn State University) in Februrary 2021.
Note - when the joke is spoken there is no need to say the parenthetical part - simply pronounce the word "variants" to sound like "variance".
A poem to help in discussing matched-pair designs. UTEP Professor Larry Lesser wrote this poem on February 1, 2021, using end-rhyme couplets to convey (literally and figuratively) tradeoffs of a design with matched pairs. Note that the rhymes are not always perfect, a reflection of how it can be impossible to match subjects perfectly. Also note how the would-be final couplet is ruined by losing its second line, just as you effectively lose two subjects when one subject in a pair chooses to drop out of your study.
A cartoon that can be used to motivate the importance of statistics in making decisions. The cartoon was used in the January 2020 CAUSE cartoon caption contest and the winning caption was written by Douglas VanDerwerken, an instructor at the United States Naval Academy. The cartoon was drawn by British cartoonist John Landers (www.landers.co.uk) based on an idea by Dennis Pearl from Penn State University.
A song providing an overview of Introductory Statistics with lyrics written by Michael Posner of Villanova University who also performs the song on the accompanying MP3 audio file. The song is a parody of the 2010 hit "Cooler Than Me" by Mike Posner. The song is also the sound track on the corresponding video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rKQtDb4VjU The video and song were the grand prize winner of the CAUSE 2013 A-Mu-sing competition. Free for use in nonprofit education applications.