Resource Library

The statistician who supposes that his main contribution to the planning of an experiment will involve statistical theory, finds repeatedly that he makes his most valuable contribution simply by persuading the investigator to explain why he wishes to do the experiment, by persuading him to justify the experimental treatments, and to explain why it is that the experiment, when completed, will assist him in his research. A quote from American statistician, and founder of the North Carolina State University Department of Statistics, Gertrude Cox (1900-1978). The quote is from a speech delivered at the Department of Agriculture in Washington D.C. on January 11th, 1950. The quote also appears in Chapter 1 of W.E. Deming's 1960 book "Sample Design in Business Research".

February 13, 2007 webinar presented by Jim Albert, Bowling Green State University, and hosted by Jackie Miller, The Ohio State University. An introductory statistics course is described that is entirely taught from a baseball perspective. This class has been taught as a special section of the basic introductory course offered at Bowling Green State University . Topics in data analysis are communicated using current and historical baseball datasets. Probability is introduced by describing and playing tabletop baseball games. Inference is taught by distinguishing between a player's "ability" and his "performance", and then describing how one can learn about a player's ability based on his season performance. Baseball issues such as the proper interpretation of situational and "streaky" data are used to illustrate statistical inference.

January 9, 2007 webinar presented by Sterling Hilton, Brigham Young University, and hosted by Jackie Miler, The Ohio State University. Beginning in January 2005, the ASA (with support from the National Science Foundation) started a series of three workshops for statisticians and mathematics education researchers. The purpose of these workshops was to make recommendations on ways to promote high-quality education research that can stand up under the scrutiny of other scientific communities and that will allow work to be compared and combined across research programs. A draft version of the final report from these workshops entitled "Using Statistics Effectively in Mathematics Education Research" has been written. This webinar summarizes the major points of this report and discuss their relevance to researchers in statistics education.

December 12, 2006 webinar presented by Michelle Everson, University of Minnesota, and hosted by Jackie Miller, The Ohio State University. This webinar focuses on describing an introductory statistics course that is taught completely online. The structure of this course is described, and samples of different student assignments and activities are presented. Assessment data and student feedback about the course are also presented. Discussion focuses on issues that must be considered when developing and administering an online course, such as the instructor's role in the online course and ways to create an active learning environment in an online course.

March 13, 2007 webinar presented by Andrew Zieffler, University of Minnesota, and hosted by Jackie Miller, The Ohio State University. The interdisciplinary field of inquiry that is statistics education research spans a diverse set of disciplines and methodologies. A recent review of a subset of this literature, the research on teaching and learning statistics at the college level, was used to raise some practical issues and pose some challenges to the field of statistics education. These are addressed in this CAUSE webinar. In addition, a recent doctoral dissertation study is used to illustrate some of these challenges and offer suggestions for how to deal with them.

...experiment without mathematics will neither sufficiently discipline the mind or sufficiently extend our knowledge... is a quote by Scottish geophysicist Balfour Stewart (1828 - 1887). The quote is found in a letter from Stewart to Henry Roscoe of Owens College on June 2, 1870.

Theory is a good thing, but a good experiment is forever. is a quote by Russian nobel prize winning physicist Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa (1894 - 1984). The quote is found on page 160 of "Experiment, theory, practice, articles and addresses volume 46."

Don 't worry about polls, but if you do, don't admit it. is a quote by former First Lady Eleanor Rosalynn Smith Carter (1927 - ).

A poem by Notre Dame College Mathematics professor Anthony Masci. The poem was awarded an honorable mention in the 2011 CAUSE A-Mu-sing competition.

All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. is a quote by American author and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882). The quote was written as a journal entry on November 11, 1842.