Sampling & Survey Issues

  • A joke to initiate a conversation about the importance of understanding your Sampling Frame when conducting surveys.  The joke was written by Larry Lesser from The University of Texas at El Paso in 2021.

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  • A cartoon that can be a vehicle to discuss the old GIGO adage (Garbage In Garbage Out) indicating how poor data may well produce poor results. The cartoon was used in the September 2022 CAUSE cartoon caption contest and the winning caption was written by Jonathan Boucher, a student at Colorado University in 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.

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  • A cartoon that invites conversation about the type of biases that may result from the way a pollster handles the logistics of taking a survey and thus the importance of careful planning.  The cartoon was used in the February 2022 CAUSE cartoon caption contest and the winning caption was written by Don Bell-Souder a student at University of Colorado, Boulder. Two alternative captions with the same basic learning object are “Selection bias is in the eye of the beholder” written by Sarah Arpin and “ACME polling finds that bootstrapping still reflects self-reporting bias.” Written by Rosie Garris who are also both students at 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.

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  • A humorous cartoon to initiate a conversation about reasons for low response rates. The cartoon was drawn by American cartoonist Jon Carter in 2013.

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  • A song for discussion of the uses of weighting. In particular, Verse 1 hits the weighted mean (with a nod to Simpson’s paradox), Verse 2 connects with how/why poll data are weighted to help the sample more accurately reflect population characteristics, which can launch a discussion of what we adjust for (probability, sample design, demographics) and how (raking, matching, propensity weighting). This can be supported by examples in GAISE (https://www.amstat.org/docs/default-source/amstat-documents/gaisecollege...) and apps (e.g., https://sites.psu.edu/shinyapps/2018/12/03/weight-adjustment-in-surveys/). Finally, the Bridge touches on weighted regression. Lyrics by Larry Lesser from The University of Texas at El Paso; may be sung to the tune of the 1981 hit "The Waiting" by Tom Petty.  The song received an honorable mention in the 2023 A-mu-sing competition.  Thanks to UTEP’s Jose Villalobos for the song title and for contributing backing vocals and guitar to Larry’s on the recording.

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  • A cartoon  to illustrate the difference between the population of interest and the sampling frame for a survey. The cartoon was drawn by British cartonist John Landers in May 2021 based on an idea from Larry Lesser (University of Texas at El Paso) and Dennis Pearl (Penn State University).

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  • A cartoon that can be used for discussions that compare and contrast survey samples versus a census. The cartoon was used in the August 2019 CAUSE cartoon caption contest and the winning caption was written by Jim Alloway from EMSQ Associates. The cartoon was drawn by British cartoonist John Landers (www.landers.co.uk) based on an idea by Dennis Pearl from Penn State University.

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  • A haiku poem written in 2019 by Larry Lesser from The University of Texas at El Paso to spark discussion about multivariable thinking and confounding variables, which are a major emphasis of the 2016 GAISE College Report.  The poem is part of a collection of 8 poems published with commentary in the January 2020 issue of Journal of Humanistic Mathematics.

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  • A poem written in 2019 by Larry Lesser from The University of Texas at El Paso to discuss systematic sampling.  Students should be familiar with the lyric being sampled from (though you could provide it to make sure) and verify that the systematic sample involved sampling every third word and starting with the lyric’s first word. Students could create their own poems with different systematic samples (or different text to sample from).  The poem is part of a collection of 8 poems published with commentary in the January 2020 issue of Journal of Humanistic Mathematics.

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  • A cartoon to illustrate the value of statistics in estimating the unemployment rate.  The cartoon was drawn in 2013 by British cartoonist John Landers based on an idea by Dennis Pearl from Ohio State University.  This item is part of the cartoons and readings from the “World Without Statistics” series that provided cartoons and readings on important applications of statistics created for celebration of 2013 International Year of Statistics.  The series may be found at https://online.stat.psu.edu/stat100/lesson/1/1.4

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