State Farm, a prominent American insurance provider, shared data that ranked American states based on the number of animal-related (mostly deer) car accident claims filed per state.
I blogged about this data previously, and I am returning to it now as part of my semi-regular Discussion Board Ideas series on this blog. I have been using this prompt in my online stats class in NW PA for about a year now. I'm going to share some of that success here. Note: PA is #4 for deer-related car accident claims, so this data resonates with my students.
I use this for the fifth of seven weeks in my online class, so the students are comfortable with the class format and one another by then. Here is the exact prompt I use:
I have a weird question for you: How do you think Pennsylvania ranks when it comes to the number of car accident insurance claims involving colliding with animals? Yes, I am on my soapbox about safe night-time driving in PA.
Once you have your guess, check against the real answer here: https://www.statefarm.com/simple-insights/auto-and-vehicles/how-likely-are-you-to-have-an-animal-collision
For the greater discussion, how do you think this data should inform insurance rates? Public safety/driving funding? How should it inform your driving?
Students can really dig into this. Here are a few of the things I enjoy the most about using this data:
1) International students/out of state students/city slickers GET THIS DATA. Like, if you don't grow up seeing a lot of deer roadkill on a daily basis, it is pretty appalling to encounter the first couple of times. It makes an impression, and students share those stories in the discussion board. I remember one of my out-of-state students on the football team commenting on the number of dead deer he saw out the team bus window while traveling to rural PA colleges and universities for games.
2) Local students get this data, too. In the discussion board, students recount their own car accidents and near misses, which gets the students talking in the discussion instead of just complimenting and agreeing with each other. Sometimes, basic engagement is hard to come by with discussion boards in a stats class. This is why I have switched to discussion boards that use just one vivid example to describe how data can be helpful in real life. I used to have more in-depth discussion boards, but I think briefer discussion boards better convey the urgency and fascination I feel when pondering data.
3) Students go from not even knowing this data exists to brainstorming about prevention measures based on this data. Whenever I use this discussion board, I ask the students what to do with this data. My students have many good ideas on how this data could inform practice: Perhaps driver's education classes in deer-prone accident areas could teach students how to scan for deer while driving. There could be PSAs during hunting/breeding seasons so folks remember to scan for deer. The PSAs could also remind drivers that if you see one deer, there are probably other deer nearby. Students have also suggested that this data could be used to guide signage/lighting decisions on rural highways where there are frequent accidents. This data could be used when setting budgets and prioritizing road improvement projects. This data could also be used when distributing hunting licenses and determining the number of deer a hunter can bag per season.
4) When people in power consider how they can best use their authority to improve everyone's lives, they need to remember the needs of rural Americans.
We addressed this when you were learning to drive!
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