A humorous cartoon to initiate a conversation about scatterplots, the strength of linear relationships and the effect of outliers. The cartoon was drawn by American cartoonist Jon Carter in 2014.
A humorous cartoon to initiate a conversation about scatterplots, the strength of linear relationships and the effect of outliers. The cartoon was drawn by American cartoonist Jon Carter in 2014.
An interesting sestina poem to discuss measurement scales and can also be used while discussing spurious correlations if the teacher provides a guiding question such as “What part of the poem describes the relationship between quantitative variables, rather than just descriptions of quantitative variables? Are those relationships examples of 'Spurious Correlations' (per the title of the poem)? Explain briefly." If the students need further help, the instructor might suggest that they focus on the second to last stanza. The was written by Jules Nyquist, the founder of Jules' Poetry Playhouse, a place for poetry and play and published in the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics (2022) v. 12 #2 p.554.
A cartoon to aid in discussing confounding and correlative versus causal relationships, for example by asking students to suggest an alternate reason for the relationship besides the one jokingly illustrated in the cartoon. The cartoon was created by English cartoonist John Landers in December, 2021 based on an idea by Dennis Pearl (Penn State University) and Larry Lesser (The University of Texas at El Paso).
A video using dance to teach about concepts involved with correlation. 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 that can be used for discussing the traditional theme of "Correlation does not imply Causation" as well as what observational evidence does provide the most convincing evidence of a causal relationship. The cartoon was used in the June 2019 CAUSE cartoon caption contest. 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 song providing an overview of Introductory Statistics with lyrics written by Michael Posner of Villanova University who also performs the song on the accompanying MP3 audio file. The song is a parody of the 2010 hit "Cooler Than Me" by Mike Posner. The song is also the sound track on the corresponding video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rKQtDb4VjU The video and song were the grand prize winner of the CAUSE 2013 A-Mu-sing competition. Free for use in nonprofit education applications.
A cartoon suitable for use in teaching ideas about independence and conditional probability. The cartoon is number 795 (September, 2010) 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 the idea that association does not imply causation. The cartoon is number 552 (March, 2009) 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 t-shirt with this cartoon is also available for sale at xkcd.com.
A cartoon suitable for use in teaching about scatterplots and correlation. The cartoon is number 388 (Feb, 2008) 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 to initiate discussions about how the correlation is a unitless number that does not change with changes in the units of the variables involved. The cartoon was created in February 2020 by British caetoonist John Landers based on an idea by Dennis Pearl (Penn State) and Larry Lesser (Univ of Texas at El Paso). An outline of a lesson plan for the use of the cartoon is given in a 2020 Teaching Statistics article by Dennis Pearl and Larry Lesser.