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Deadlines and Contact
Information for ASA
National Awards,
Special Lectureships,
and COPSS Awards
April 15, 2008
Gertrude
M. Cox
Scholarship
Department Chair Xiao-Li Meng sports an Isaac Newton tie and a clicker as he conducts his unusual
Eleanor Feingold
statistics class.
University of Pittsburgh
Staff photo Rose Lincoln/Harvard News Office Graduate School of Public Health
130 DeSoto Street A310
Pittsburgh, PA 15261-0001
Phone: (412) 383-8599
As an example, Meng cited a study Toward the end of class, Statistics 105
that compared two treatments used for took a lighter turn: lessons on probability
Fax: (412) 624-3020
kidney stones. It showed the persuasive and confidence intervals based on choco-
feingold@pitt.edu
allure of quantitative evidence, as well lates that may or may not contain cham-
as the way a nonrigorous examination of pagne. (With lunchtime drawing near,
numbers can backfire. everyone got some samples.)
At first glance, Treatment B seemed to Meng collected several sets of student-
claim the highest numbers of good out- clicker data, based on questions that increas-
comes—83% to 78%. But, behind the ingly revealed more information. “How you
numbers, by way of something statisticians ask a question,” he said of designing statisti-
call Simpson’s Paradox, Treatment A clearly cal queries, “is very important.”
April 15, 2008
trumped B. Meng’s lessons: Look for addi- The more information there is packed Excellence in Statistical
tional data and know what questions were into a question, the more polled opinions
Reporting Award
asked to arrive at each set of numbers. shift gradually closer to the truth. In a
In a parallel way, statistics have a special first clicker survey, none of the students
Donald A. Berry
allure in courts of law, where lawyers may reported that their chocolate (chosen at
The University of Texas M.D. Anderson
use quantitative data in ways that seduces random) contained champagne; by the
Cancer Center
the untrained mind. “Statistics is always third survey, 17% reported they tasted 1515 Holcombe Blvd., Box 447
about presenting evidence,” said Meng, “and champagne in their samples. (The real Houston, TX 77030
listeners have to be aware of the pitfalls.” answer—33%—should have emerged,
Phone: (713) 794-4141
As a case study, he used a real-life exam- as one-third of the chocolates were laced
Fax: (713) 563-4242
ple of a man accused of rape based on with champagne, said Meng.)
dberry@mdanderson.org
DNA found at the crime scene. Chretien Class ended on a light note, too, with
and the course’s other teaching fellow, Kari a real-life lesson from a “Forrest Gump”
Lock, role-played lawyers for the prosecu- video clip. “Life is like a box of chocolates,”
tion and defense, basing their evidence on the Tom Hanks title character offers. “You
the same DNA evidence. Clickers in hand, never know what you’re going to get.”
just more than half the students voted to That may be true, said Meng later. But
convict. The informed answer? As with with a grasp of elementary statistics, he
others, Meng promised it would come later added, “you can estimate what you are going
in the semester. to get—especially after taking Stat 105.”
Details can be found at
n
www.amstat.org/awards.
APRIL 2008 AMSTAT NEWS 19
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