The thing about my way of teaching stats is that my cool, novel examples get old really fast. Like, pop culture is on a thirty-day cycle. Anyway, YEARS ago, 2014 to be exact, I blogged about illustrating bimodal data distributions using baby name data from the Social Security Administration. Specifically, when an older name comes back into vogue, it has a bimodal distribution when you plot time on the X axis. I stand by this example. However, all of the data illustrations come from 2014. When our traditionally aged college students were 6 or 7. Which makes this example feel a little stale. However, here is some data, courtesy of Redditor fevaah , showing old names that are back in vogue through 2025 ! And Eleanor, Violet, Nora, and Hazel are here, illustrating bimodal distributions for a new generation. If you used my old baby-name data, this is a quick, easy refresh for your lectures (or a fun new addition if you didn't). If this idea was help...
TED isn't the only source of videos for teaching statistics. The Economist also makes animated videos that are lousy with data. One easy, no-pay-wall source for such videos is The Economists Videographic playlist on YouTube (there is a limit on number article views/month at their website).
One really statsy video from The Economist that I've featured previously on this blog explains the real life implications for Type I/Type II error in research (and, specifically, how it leads to errors in published research).
The other videos may not be as directly related to the teaching of statistical topics, but they do illustrate data. Topics range from American union membership trends to this video about world population growth. As you may have inferred from the source, many of these videos focus on national and global economic information, but all of the videos do present data that you can integrate into your classes.
Some are more applicable to teaching statistics: This video describes why we have so much data and keep on generating more data. Others are particularly applicable to social/interpersonal psychology, like this illustration of how "like likes like" in terms of education level (and how this may contribute to income inequality).
Others are about non-teaching topics but very relatable, like this video about shifting world age demographics or this one explaining why textbooks in America are so expensive.
These videos demonstrate to your students a) how data can be used to make a logical argument, b) how illustrated data can help to visualize a compelling story, and c) that statistics are used by people who do not work in explicitly stats-y careers.
One really statsy video from The Economist that I've featured previously on this blog explains the real life implications for Type I/Type II error in research (and, specifically, how it leads to errors in published research).
The other videos may not be as directly related to the teaching of statistical topics, but they do illustrate data. Topics range from American union membership trends to this video about world population growth. As you may have inferred from the source, many of these videos focus on national and global economic information, but all of the videos do present data that you can integrate into your classes.
Some are more applicable to teaching statistics: This video describes why we have so much data and keep on generating more data. Others are particularly applicable to social/interpersonal psychology, like this illustration of how "like likes like" in terms of education level (and how this may contribute to income inequality).
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These videos demonstrate to your students a) how data can be used to make a logical argument, b) how illustrated data can help to visualize a compelling story, and c) that statistics are used by people who do not work in explicitly stats-y careers.