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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...

Sampling bias example via NASA, Pew Research Center, and Twitter

Today's post is one, small, to-the-point example of sampling bias.

On May 27, 2020, my family and I were awaiting lift-off for the (subsequently grounded) NASA/SpaceX launch. To no one's surprise, I was following NASA on Twitter during the hoopla, and I noticed this Tweet:

https://twitter.com/NASA/status/1265724481009594369

And I couldn't help but think: That is some sampling bias. Admittedly, their sample size is very impressive, with over 54K votes. But this poll went out to a bunch of people who love NASA so much that they follow it on Twitter. 

What is a less biased response to this question? As always, Pew Research Center had my back. 58% of Americans responded that they definitely/probably weren't interested in traveling into space:


https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/06/07/space-tourism-majority-of-americans-say-they-wouldnt-be-interested/

If you want to expand upon this example in class, you could ask your students to Google around for information on the typical Twitter user and whether or not they are representative of the average American. You could also go to the link for the survey and learn more about the exact methodology used by Pew research to gather their data. 

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