Resource Library

A cartoon for use in celebrations of Random Acts of Kindness Day which is an unofficial holiday in many countries typically celebrated in February. Cartoon by John Landers (www.landers.co.uk) based on the suggested illustrating text and concept from Larry Lesser (The University of Texas at El Paso). The cartoon was first displayed on the website http://www.worldofstatistics.org on Random Acts of Kindness day in February 2014. Free to use in the classroom and on course web sites or other non-profit teaching uses.

A joke to use in discussing the meaning of the slope in a linear trend.  The joke was written in May 2019 by Larry Lesser, The University of Texas at El Paso, and Dennis Pearl, Penn State University.

A song discussing how a sample can be superior to a census.  The lyric was written in 2018 by Lawrence Lesser of The University of Texas at El Paso and parodies John Denver's 1974 #1 hit "Annie's Song".  The song was also published in the May 2019 Amstat News.

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.

A quote to help in discussing the idea that a plan for the purposeful collection of data should include a plan for how the information will be used. The quote is by American philosopher, educator, and feminist Anna C. Brackett (1836 - 1911) and may be found in The Technique of Rest, Ch. 2 (1892).

A joke to use in discussing the poor representativeness of a convenience sample.  The joke was written in 2019 by Larry Lesser from The University of Texas at El Paso.

A joke to use in discussing Meta Analyses.  The joke was written in 2019 by Larry Lesser from The University of Texas at El Paso.

A fun song about the average by American humorist and singer-songwriter Carla Ulbrich. The song was a finalist in the novelty category of the 2018 USA Songwriting Competition.  The song is also available at www.theacousticguitarproject.com/artist/carla-ulbrich/ and more about the singer can be found at her website at www.carlau.com. For classroom use, you might ask which lines in "Totally Average Woman" refer to ways in which the woman in the song is at the mean, and which refer to ways in which she is at the median. Permission from singer is for free use for teaching in classroom and course websites with attribution. Commercial users must contact the copyright holder.

"By definition all scientists are data scientists. In my opinion, they are half hacker, half analyst, they use data to build products and find insights. It’s Columbus meet Columbo - starry eyed explorers and skeptical detectives," is a quote by Romanian American Data Scientist Monica Rogati. The quote is from an interview published in Forbes magazine on November 27, 2011.

"Like doctors, data scientists should pledge a Hippocratic Oath, one that focuses on the possible misuses and misinterpretations of their models," is a quote by American mathemetician and data scientist Cathy O'Neil (1972 - ).  The quote is found on page 205 of her 2016 award winning book Weapons of Math Destruction.