Resource Library

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

"Shorn of all subtlety and led naked out of the protective fold of educational research literature, there comes a sheepish little fact: lectures don’t work nearly as well as many of us would like to think." A quote by George Cobb (1947 - 2020) from his 1992 paper "Teaching Statistics," in Heeding the Call for Change: Suggestions for Curricular Action, ed. Lynn Steen, MAA Notes Number 22, 3-43. The quote is a well-phrased reminder that listening to lectures is not an effective way for students to learn.

A collection of jokes brainstormed by Larry Lesser (The University of Texas at El Paso) and Dennis Pearl (Penn State University) in January 2021, inspired by encountering the first item of unknown origin.  The collection is designed with a particular activity in mind to have students compose and think about the many ways data are viewed and handled by focusing on jokes of the form  "The data on _____A_________ are _____B_____,"

and then to explain what it means for data to be ___B____. 18 humorous examples are provided.

A haiku written in 2019 by Larry Lesser from The University of Texas at El Paso for the ASA Day haiku contest celebrating the 180th anniversary of the American Statistical Association. This haiku might motivate students to learn about the history of ASA and/or of Florence Nightingale.  The haiku won first place in the non-student division and was published in the January 2020 Amstat News.