Resource Library

A video using dance to teach about concepts involved with sampling error and the standard error of a statistic.  This 2013 video is from the “Dancing Statistics” series developed by Lucy Irving from Middlesex University (UK) funded by a BPS Public Engagement grant and additional funding from IdeasTap.  Full credits are within the video.   The Dancing Statistics project is described at https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00050/full

The video also comes with teaching notes for viewing by instructors who are logged into CAUSEweb.org. 

A cartoon to teach basic ideas about survey sampling. The cartoon is #1271 in the web comic Piled Higher and Deeper by Panamanian cartoonist Jorge Cham (1976- ): see www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1271. It originally appeared in that series on January 20, 2010. Free for use in classrooms and course websites with acknowledgement (i.e. "Piled Higher and Deeper" by Jorge Cham www.phdcomics.com should be on or next to the cartoon in your display). Commercial users must contact the copyright holder for permissions.

A joke to be used in discussing the Sign test (based on whether an observation is above or below a specific value) and the Wilcoxon test (based on ordering the observations).  The joke was written by Larry Lesser from The University of Texas at El Paso in December 2020.

A pun to start a discussion of the use of a sign test.  The joke was written by Dennis Pearl from Penn State University in 2020.

Statz 4 Life is a 5 minute, 13 second video that provides a fun review of statistical inference topics (for example, the theme of examining observed differences in the numerator and error in the denominator). The video was first shown on May 18, 2006 in Chuck Tate's research methods course, while he was a graduate student in the Department of Psychology at the University of Oregon. The rappers are (in order of appearance): Jeph Loucks, Chuck Tate, Chelan Weaver, and Cara Lewis. Jennifer Simonds provides the singing talent. Credits: Concept, lyrics, and cinematography by Chuck Tate, audio mixing by Jeph Loucks, and video editing by Chuck Tate and Jeph Loucks. The background beat is Nelly's song "Grillz," of which this video is a parody.

A cartoon that can used to help discuss the difference between large and small datasets and the kinds of issues involved in analyzing them and the questions that can be answered with them. The cartoon was used in the April 2020 CAUSE cartoon caption contest and the winning caption was written by Eric Vance from the University of Colorado Boulder. 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 that can be used in a discussion of prediction – and the difference between the accuracy of a single prediction and quantifying the level of accuracy for a prediction method. The cartoon was used in the May 2019 CAUSE cartoon caption contest and the winning caption was written by Mickey Dunlap from the University of Georgia. 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 co-winning caption in the May 2019 contest was “I see you come from a long line of statisticians," written by Douglas VanDerwerkenz from the U.S. Naval Academy. Doug's clever pun can be related to the multiple testing problem by talking about how a fortune teller will get some predictions right if they make a long line of them.

A cartoon suitable for use in teaching about confidence intervals and the quality of estimates made by a model. The cartoon is number 2311 (May, 2020) 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 cartoon suitable for use in teaching about Type I and Type II errors as well as providing a comical take on other kinds of errors that can occur with statistical inference. The cartoon is number 2303 (May, 2020) 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 cartoon suitable for use in teaching about the variability in estimates (including estimates of the variability of estimates). The cartoon is number 2110 (February, 2019) 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.