Resource Library

A song to introduce the basic idea of using simulation to calculate a P-value for a randomization test (by simulating lots of group assignments and seeing what proportion of them give more extreme test statistics than observed with the actual group assignments).  The lyrics were written in November 2018 by Larry Lesser from The University of Texas at El Paso and Dennis Pearl from Penn State University. May be sung to the tune of the 1980 number #1 song “Celebration” by Kool and the Gang. Audio of the parody was produced and sung by students in the commercial music program of The University of Teas at El Paso.

A cartoon suitable for use in discussing the interpretation of p-values of different levels. The cartoon is number 1478 (January, 2015) from the webcomic series at xkcd.com created by Randall Munroe. Free to use in the classroom and on course web sites under a creative commons attribution-non-commercial 2.5 license.

A joke for discussing the over-use of hypothesis testing methods.  The joke was written in April 2019 by Larry Lesser from The University of Texas at El Paso.

Free statistical calculators online.  Our basic statistical calculators will help you in common tasks you might encounter and deal mostly with simple distributions. 

A song that may be used in discussing the definition and interpretation of the P-Value in significance testing. 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 Van Morrison’s 1967 classic rock song BlBrown Eyed Girl. Also, an accompanying video may be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmQvXhN7Exc statistical topic: Significance Testing Principles – P-value

These three haikus were written as part of an activity in Paul Roback's introductory statistics class at St. Olaf College in February, 2009 ("World of chaos" by Carolyn Raitt; "Reality bites" by Hannah Johnson; "Is it you or me" by Nicole Villa). As a collection, the haikus won first place in the poetry category of the 2009 A-Mu-sing competition. The entire class is shown in this picture: http://www.causeweb.org/resources/fun/pics/Roback_class.jpg

Oops! ... I Picked the Wrong Test is a 4 minute, 12 second video that provides a fun review of common mistakes made in conducting hypothesis tests. The video was first sung for students in a Psychology class at the University of Oregon. The singer is Jennifer Simonds, Ph.D. of Westminster College in Salt Lake City Utah (where the video was filmed). The song is a parody of "Oops ... I did it again" by Britney Spears (2000). Characters: Britney Spearman - Jennifer Simonds, Chuck - Chuck Tate, Frustrated Professor - Bill Bynum, Dancers - Cressa Perloff (dance captain), Kathleen Ware, and Mariah Mercer. Credits: Lyrics, vocals, directions, and production by Jennifer Simonds; Recording and Sound Engineering by Ted Sablay; Final Cut Consulting by Zelda Randazzo; Audio Sync Assistance by Lizzie Randazzo; Camera Work and Props by Amy Fairchild. This video won the overall Grand Prize in the 2009 CAUSE A-Mu-sing contest.

Rejection Detection is a poem by Patricia McCann of Franklin University. It may be used in teaching about p-values in hypothesis testing.

A poem useful in teaching aspects about hypothesis testing, especially the caveat that unimportant differences may be deemed significant with a large sample size. The poem was written by Mariam Hermiz, a student at University of Toronto, Mississauga in Fall 2010 as part of an assignment in a biometrics class taught by Helene Wagner. The poem was awarded first place in the poetry category of the 2011 CAUSE A-Mu-sing contest.

This chapter explains the structure/steps of hypothesis testing, the concept of significance, the relationship between confidence intervals and hypothesis testing, and Type I/II errors.