I love data-informed opinions and arguments. So, I was fascinated when NPR told me that some academics quietly take side gigs in which they use data to help tobacco companies. Specifically, tobacco companies argue that, over time, people have become more and more aware of the risks associated with smoking. As such, Big Tobacco argues that they should not be held responsible for the harm caused by smoking. From NPR: I went down the rabbit hole to find the original data and more information on Gallups position, and this is what I found: https://news.gallup.com/poll/1717/tobacco-smoking.aspx So, while American's had heard about the potential connection between cancer and smoking, not everyone believed that this was true (41%), and many people weren't sure about the link (29%). How to use in class: -Data used in court. -Data is used by historians. More here:  http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~gelman/stuff_for_blog/Ethics-of-Consulting-for-the-Tobacco-Industry.p...

I teach many, many statistics classes. In addition to the core topics typically covered in Introductory Statistics, I think covering real-life controversies involving statistics is vital. Usually, these are stories of large organizations that attempted to bias/PR attack/skew/p-hack/cherry-pick data to serve their own purposes.  I believe that these examples serve to show why data literacy is so critical because data is used in so many fields, AND our students must prepare themselves to evaluate data-based claims throughout their lives. I put out a call on Twitter , and my friends there helped me generate a great list of such controversies. I put this list into a spreadsheet with links to primers on each topic. This isn't an in-depth study of any of these topics, but the links should get you going in the right direction if you would like to use them in class. I hope this helps my fellow stats teachers integrate more applied examples into their classes. If you h...

Create an account with Pew Research, and you can download some of their data sets, including a) syntax files, b) detailed methodology, and c) codebook, including detailed screenshots of what the survey felt like to participants.  I think there are three ways to use this in class: -Show your students what proper data documentation looks like -Get some data, run some analyses -Get some data, look up Pew's reports based on the data, see if you can replicate the findings. How to Properly Document Your Research Process. Pew documents the hell out of these data sets. Included are: Syntax files: Methodology: Surveys, featuring the questions but also screenshots of the user experience: Get some data, run some analyses. MY FIRST EVER FACTOR ANALYSIS EXAMPLE, y'all. Per the methodology documentation, Pew creates its own scales. Within this data set (American Trends Panel Wave 34), they use several scales to measuring attitudes about medical treatments. ...