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Updated example of using baby names to illustrate bimodal distributions.

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...

If your students get the joke, they get statistics.

Gleaned from multiple sources (FB, Pinterest, Twitter, none of these belong to me, etc.). Remember, if your students can explain why a stats funny is funny, they are demonstrating statistical knowledge. I like to ask students to explain the humor in such examples for extra credit points (see below for an example from my FA14 final exam).

Using xkcd.com for bonus points/assessing if students understand that correlation =/= causation



What are the numerical thresholds for probability? 





How does this refer to alpha? What type of error is being described, Type I or Type II?





What measure of central tendency is being described?



Dilbert: http://search.dilbert.com/comic/Kill%20Anyone
Sampling, CLT



http://foulmouthedbaker.com/2013/10/03/graphs-belong-on-cakes/
Because control vs. sample, standard deviations, normal curves. Also,"skewed" pun. If you go to the original website, the story behind this cakes has to do with a section of crappy students...so that is kind of funny and therapeutic for us teachers.

NOTE: The website the cake example comes from contains a lot of NSFW language. Which I, personally, have no problem with, but you might.




http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1793
Because bar graphs, error bars, and understanding the joke behind this graph.



http://smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=3732
What kind of error, Type I or Type II?




http://wilwheaton.net/2015/11/wil-cant-draw-teachable-moment/
 Reliability, n-size


https://mathwithbaddrawings.com/2016/04/27/symbols-that-math-urgently-needs-to-adopt/
What does correlation give us? What does it not?


http://xkcd.com/1725/

What does the r^2 here indicate? Why would it be difficult to guess the direction of the relationship?



What is the joke here? For more rigor: What does et al. stand for? What are the APA rules for when to use et al.?


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