Our World in Data's deep dive into human height. Examples abound.

Stats nerds: I'm warning your right now. This website is a rabbit hole for us, what with the interactive, customizable data visualizations. Please don't click on the links below if you need to grade or be with your kids or drive.

At a recent conference presentation, I was asked where non-Americans can find examples like the ones I share on my blog. I had a few ideas (data analytic firms located in other countries, data collected by the government), but wanted more from my answer.

BUT...I recently discovered this interactive from Our World in Data. It visualizes international data on human height, y'all with so many different examples throughout. I know height data isn't the sexiest data, but your students can follow these examples, they can be used in a variety of different lessons, and you can download all of the data from the beautiful interactive charts.

1. Regressions can't predict forever. Trends plateau.

I'm using this graph to as an example of how a regression equation can't predict forever, and that trends plateu. This example depicts human height. There is also a section of this website dedicated to why this may be happening.

https://ourworldindata.org/human-height#height-is-normally-distributed

2. Within-group variability

Male height differs by country. Display whichever country you want. There are a bunch.

https://ourworldindata.org/human-height#increase-of-human-height-over-two-centuries

3. The empirical rule, normal curves, within-group vs. between-group differences

Normal curves for male and female heights.

https://ourworldindata.org/human-height#height-is-normally-distributed

5. Linear relationships

Around the globe, there is a positive relationship between mean male and mean female height. You can see the big picture in this scatterplot. You can also highlight individual countries, and download the data for analysis in class.

https://ourworldindata.org/human-height#did-heights-across-the-world-increase-more-for-men-or-women

6. Third Variable Problem

As male height increases, child mortality decreases. Are big tall dudes making kids live longer? That seems unlikely. Challenge your students to find the third variable that likely causes both.

A graph depicting the negative relationship between child mortality and average male height.

https://ourworldindata.org/human-height#how-does-health-affect-height

Comments

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