The CAUSE Cartoon Caption Contest for September is now taking entries

The Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education is happy to announce our 28th 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 September 30th are at  
https://www.causeweb.org/cause/caption-contest/september/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.

August Results:  The August caption contest had 17 entries and featured a cartoon with a pair of twins walking along side a lake while a piano hangs precariously on a rope over their heads.  The rope is being hit by lightening, there are space ships in the distance about to land, and the Loch Ness Monster appears in the water - all while the twins appear to be about to slip on a pair of banana peels! The winning caption for the August contest was “Always read the full informed consent document before signing up to be in a matched-pairs experiment,” written by Greg Snow from Brigham Young University.  The caption should prove helpful in discussing human subjects issues during a unit on designing experiments. Honorable mentions this month went to Michael Albers from East Carolina University for his submission: After winning both Powerball and Megamillions on the same day, Bill and Sam head out to celebrate,” and to an anonymous contributor for the entry “The Poisson model for rare events was about to be tested.” Both of the honorable mentions might be used in discussing models for rare events and the assumption of independence.  Several other great entries also focused on issues of rare events and matched-pair designs.

Thanks to everyone who submitted a caption and remember to let your students know about the CAUSE caption contest!