This blog is usually dedicated to sharing ideas for teaching statistics. And I will share some ideas for teaching. But I'm also asking you to share YOUR ideas for teaching statistics. Specifically, your ideas for teaching the new statistics: effect size, confidence intervals, etc. The following email recently came across the Society for the Teaching of Psychology listserv from Robert Calin-Jageman (rcalinjageman@dom.edu). "Is anyone out there incorporating the "New Statistics" (estimation, confidence intervals, meta-analysis) into their stats/methods sequence? I'm working with Geoff Cumming on putting together an APS 2017 symposium proposal on teaching the New Statistics.  We'd love to hear back from anyone who has already started or is about to.  Specifically, we'd love to:         * Collect resources you'd be willing to share (syllabi, assignments, etc.)         * Collect narratives of your experi...

The Colbert Report's take on Kyle Copland's research studying whether or not gun ownership lowers crimes. Copland's method? Handing out free .22s in high crime areas (to folks that pass a background check and take a gun safety course). from ColbertNation.com This applies more to a research methods class (Colbert expresses a need for a control group in Copland's research. His suggestion? Sugar guns as well as a second experimental condition in which EVERYONE is given a gun). However, I imagine that you could show your students this video and pause it before they introduce the research project and ask your students how we could finally answer this question of whether or not gun ownership lowers crimes. Thanks to Chelsea for pointing this out!

Darryl Bem on The Colbert Report I love me some Colbert Report. So imagine my delight when he interviewed social psychologist Darryl Bem . Bem is famous for his sex roles inventory as well as his Psi research. Colbert interviewed him about his 2012 Journal of Personality and Social Psychology article, Feeling the Future: Experimental Evidence for Anomalous Retroactive Influences on Cognition and Affect, which demonstrated a better-than-chance ability to predict an outcome. Here, the outcome was guessing which side of a computer screen would contain an erotic image (Yes, Colbert had a field day with this. Yes, please watch the clip in its entirety before sharing it with a classroom of impressionable college students). Big deal? Needless to say, Colbert reveled in poking fun at the "Time Traveling Porn" research. However, the interview is of some educational value because it a)does a good job of describing the research methods used in the study. Additionally, b) h...