The CAUSE Cartoon Caption Contest for October is now taking entries
The Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education is happy to
announce our 29th Cartoon Caption Contest (that’s right – more than two years now). Each
month a cartoon, drawn by British cartoonist John Landers, will be posted for you and your
students to suggest statistical captions. Note that the cartoons are posted at the
beginning of the month month and submissions are due at the end of the month regardless of
when the winners are announced. Student entries are always welcome and this can be a fun
exercise to assign to your class.
The next cartoon and the entry rules for the contest ending October 31st are at
https://www.causeweb.org/cause/caption-contest/october/2018/submissions
The best captions will be posted on CAUSEweb and the winner(s) will receive their choice
of a coffee mug or t-shirt imprinted with the cartoon.
Enjoy.
September Results: The September caption contest had 20 entries and featured a cartoon
with two people eating at a fine-dining restaurant. When the server reveals the food on a
silver platter, it turns out to be a statistics book! The winning caption for the
September contest was “A bit difficult to fully digest, but very nutritional and packed
with vitamins α, p-hat, x-bar, and especially mu and sigma!,” written by Greg Baugher from
Mercer University. The caption was designed to build positive attitudes towards
statistics in general and introduce some key notation. An honorable mention this month
goes to Jeremy Case from Taylor University for his submission: “While the restaurant does
not list its prices, it does provide help in estimating them,” which, like another
submitted caption by an anonymous entrant (“After ordering "something
experimental," they were asked to design their own”), can be used to illustrate the
value of statistics in designing and analyzing studies. A final honorable mention goes to
Greg Snow at Brigham Young University for his caption “People who only consume statistics
don't appreciate them like those who learn to produce statistics,” that can help to
initiate a conversation about the different needs of people who consume and people who
produce data.
Thanks to everyone who submitted a caption and remember to let your students know about
the CAUSE caption contest!
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