SEM The Musical 4



Below is a sneak peek at our new songs for this year. We'll also be singing some "oldies" from SEM the Musical 1, 2, and 3 (just click directly on the numbers to access previous years' lyrics).

SEM Musical FOUR!
Lyrics by Alan Reifman
(May be sung to the tune of “Let’s Get it Started,” Will Adams et al. for the Black Eyed Peas)

(Softly) The models keep runnin-runnin, and runnin-runnin, and runnin-runnin, and runnin-runnin, and runnin-runnin, and runnin-runnin, and runnin-runnin, and runnin-runnin, and...

We’re back again, to have some fun,
We’re gonna bust some rhyme, have a good time,
We’re gonna sing some songs, about SEM technique,
Access your inner geek, let your voices speak,
SEM is different, your measurement model’s explicit,
The whole model, gets tested for fit,
Is it identified? We know how hard you’ve tried,
Knowns and unknowns, side by side,
It takes you on a ride, finally you’re satisfied,
Your output’s now just fine, you’ve arrived, you can take pride…

NFI, TLI, CFI,
Calculate estimates, let it run, have some fun, yeah…
SEM Musical (FOUR!), SEM Musical (HERE!),
SEM Musical (FOUR!), SEM Musical (HERE!),
SEM Musical (FOUR!), SEM Musical (HERE!),
SEM Musical (FOUR!), SEM Musical (HERE!),
Yeah,

Build your constructs, get this straight,
Make sure the indicators, correlate,
Draw your pathways, residuals too,
Don’t leave out, the fixed 1 value,
Take your time, think it through,
Don’t worry if you’re new, we’ll walk with you,
Step by step, right up the pyramid,
For SEM, we’re really groovin,’
Hope you get an acceptable solution,
Submit your model and get it movin,’

NFI, TLI, CFI,
Calculate estimates, let it run, have some fun, yeah…
SEM Musical (FOUR!), SEM Musical (HERE!),
SEM Musical (FOUR!), SEM Musical (HERE!),
SEM Musical (FOUR!), SEM Musical (HERE!),
SEM Musical (FOUR!), SEM Musical (HERE!),
Yeah…

Once You Work in AMOS
Lyrics by Alan Reifman
(May be sung to the tune of “Once in Love with Amy,” Frank Loesser)

Once you work, in AMOS,
Find every quirk, in AMOS,
Construct by construct, you can draw your picture,
Using all the gadgets, is fun,

Learn the rules, in AMOS,
Use all the tools, in AMOS,
Circles and boxes, and you can add arrows,
Soon your model’s, ready to run,

The moving truck, the sizer, and the bubble,
Your choices, are vast,
And even if, you find yourself in trouble,
You can fix things fast,

So, once you work, in AMOS,
Find every quirk, in AMOS,
Each time you use it, your skills are expanded,
And you’ll understand, what you see,
Cause, in the end, it’s fixed, or it's free…

Prof. Reifman
Lyrics by Kim Corson and Janis Henderson
(May be sung to the tune of "Fernando," Ulvaeus, Andersson, & Anderson, for ABBA)

Can you hear the songs, Prof. Reifman?
We remember long ago, in intro stats you sang like this,
At the front of class, Prof. Reifman,
You were humming to yourself, and softly strumming air guitar,
We could hear the distant drums,
And suddenly, the answers didn't seem so far,

We’re much closer now, Prof. Reifman,
Every box, every circle, seems to make more sense to us,
We are not afraid, Prof. Reifman,
We sit here so full of life; all of us are prepared to try,
And we're not ashamed to say,
The songs of SEM the Musical 4 helped us get by,

There was something in the air that day,
The fog went away, Prof. Reifman,
He was talking about SEM,
And our heads didn't swim, Prof. Reifman,

Though we never thought that we would grasp, degrees of freedom,
We can calculate them now, in fact, we just subtract, Prof. Reifman,
We can calculate them now, in fact, we just subtract, Prof. Reifman,

When we're old and grey, Prof. Reifman,
And for many years we haven't played in your "rock band,"
We'll still hear the strums, Prof. Reifman,
And we'll recall learning AMOS, like Emeril, can go "Bam!",
And we'll still call point-0-0-0 "Paula Abdul significance,"

There was something in the air that day,
The fog went away, Prof. Reifman,
He was talking about SEM,
And our heads didn't swim, Prof. Reifman,

Though we never thought that we would grasp, under-identification,
We now see it's when a model's flown, with too much unknown, Prof. Reifman,

There was something in the air that day,
The fog went away, Prof. Reifman,
He was talking about SEM,
And our heads didn't swim, Prof. Reifman,

Though we never thought that we would grasp, degrees of freedom,
We can calculate them now, in fact, we just subtract, Prof. Reifman,
We can calculate them now, in fact, we just subtract, Prof. Reifman,

Graphics Programs for Drawing SEM Diagrams

On the SEMNET discussion listserv around April 3-4, 2010, someone asked about graphics programs for drawing structural-equation-model diagrams, and other participants sent in suggestions. I, personally, find AMOS and PowerPoint to be good. However, if anyone wants to examine additional programs, here are some:

GraphViz

Concept Draw

Concept Map (perhaps more appropriate for illustrating theory construction than actual SEM drawing)

Easy Draw (seems like a very general graphic-arts program)

ADDED 6/10/2017: PowerPoint Tips for Displaying SEM Models