The Stats Bear

    One of my quirkiest teachers this semester is my stats professor.  She's very nice and openly shows a true passion for what she teaches, but sometimes the things she says or does are so out there that they deserve mention.
    One of the most hilarious of these events occurred today's class.  We were learning about 'the mean of means (which is the mean!)...another great quirk of hers) and in attempt to help us better understand bias and spread, she draws the sketch to the right (this isn't the exact sketch but it was the best I could do from memory...I assure you it is fairly close to what it looked like thought).
    "What could it be?" the professor asked the class.  A few random mumbles of "tiger!" and "lion" slipped in (my personal guess was a stegosaurus).  To our dismay, however, we were told that it was a bear!  Let me stress this...A BEAR!
    When the professor told us what her drawing was, many people burst out laughing.  I know Paul S. and I couldn't stop laughing for at least a good minute as the teacher continued (sarcastically) talking about how art is a serious hobby of hers and she enjoys drawing on the weekends.  After our few moments of giggles, she explained to us how she was "shooting" the bear (the Xs) and that the results above of missing the bear but coming very close around it showed a small amount of bias with a fairly wide spread.
    I'm not sure at how great of an artist my professor is, but I'm sure I won't forget the difference between bias and spread on our next exam.