Resource Library

A cartoon that invites conversation about the type of biases that may result from the way a pollster handles the logistics of taking a survey and thus the importance of careful planning.  The cartoon was used in the February 2022 CAUSE cartoon caption contest and the winning caption was written by Don Bell-Souder a student at University of Colorado, Boulder. Two alternative captions with the same basic learning object are “Selection bias is in the eye of the beholder” written by Sarah Arpin and “ACME polling finds that bootstrapping still reflects self-reporting bias.” Written by Rosie Garris who are also both students at University of Colorado, Boulder. 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 poem generally celebrating statistics.  The poem was written by Sally Maughan and was chosen as the winner of an online contest seeking a Pi-Ku in the online mathematics education journal Aperiodical in 2020. A "Pi-ku" is like a Haiku except, instead of a 5-7-5 structure, it uses a 3-1-4 structure (the first three digits of π. 

A cartoon that can be used in discussing the issue of selection bias. The cartoon appeared as number 2618 (June, 2022) in the web comic xkcd by Randell Patrick Munroe (http://www.xkcd.com/2618/).

 

 

A joke to aid in discussing Confirmation Bias (bias introduced in surveys because respondents tend to interpret things in a way that confirms their preexisting beliefs).  The joke was written by Larry Lesser from The Universisty of Texas at El Paso and Dennis Pearl from The Pennsylvania State University in October, 2018.

Explore the Hubble Deep Fields from a statistical point of view.  Watch out for the booby traps of bias, the vagueness of variability, and the shiftiness of sample size as we travel on a photo safari through the Hubble Deep Fields (HDFs).

Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of human disease and health outcomes, and the application of methods to improve human health. This course examines the methods used in epidemiologic research, including the design of epidemiologic studies and the collection and analysis of epidemiological data.  Perfect for students and teachers wanting to learn/acquire materials for this topic.

This is a graduate level survey course that stresses the concepts of statistical design and analysis in biomedical research, with special emphasis on clinical trials. Perfect for students and teachers wanting to learn/acquire materials for this topic.

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

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

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.