Consumer Affairs released a list of America's best and worst drivers . It is a short article but contains many good stats nuggets. 1. Ratio and ordinal versions of the same data. 2. Where did the ratio data come from? Take a look at the Methodology. 3.  Here is the data for the twenty most terrible driver s. It includes the nominal/ratio data I shared above and the top four bullet points from the image above. 4. Where did they find their data? Lucky for us, they cite their data. Which is good form, right? But also, it is an example of how much hecking data is out there. 

I am avoiding grading and trying to make this here blog more usable, so I am consolidating all of my funny scale examples into one location. Feast your eyes on this! https://earther.com/we-finally-know-what-hot-as-balls-really-means-1825713726 http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/02/boyfriend-doesnt-have-ebola-probably.html http://notawfulandboring.blogspot.com/2018/01/this-is-very-silly-example-for.html

Full disclosure: I have no chill when it comes to Harry Potter. Despite my great bias, I still think this pscyometrically-created (with help from psychologists and Time Magazine's Chris Wilson!) Hogwart's House Sorter is a great example for scale building, validity, descriptive statistics, electronic consent, etc. for stats and research methods. How to use in a Research Methods class: 1) The article details how the test drew upon the Big Five inventory. And it talks smack about the Myers-Briggs. 2) The article also uses simple language to give a rough sketch of how they used statistics to pair you with your house. The "standard statistical model" is a regression line, the "affinity for each House is measured independently", etc. While you are taking the quiz itself, there are some RM/statsy lessons: 3) At the end of the quiz, you are asked to contribute some more information. It is a great example of a leading response options ...

I've been using this example in class for a few years but never got around to blogging about it until now. It seems that the first chapter of every statistics class provides a boring explanation of what a variable is, and examples of variables, and operationalizing variables, and quantifying the abstract for the purposes of conducting statistical analyses. I try to make that boring topic funnier and applicable to real life via this post entitled "Boyfriend doesn't have ebola. Probably." from Allie Brosh, editor of Hyperbole and a Half . In this posting, she rips apart the good old FACES scale after a trip with her boyfriend to the ER.

Oh, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, you unkillable scamp. This video , from Vox, gives a concise historical perspective on the scale, describes how popular it still is, and summarizes several of the arguments against the scale. This video explains why the ol' MBTI is not particularly useful. Good for debunking psychology myths and good for explaining reliability (in particular, test-retest reliability) and validity. I like this link in particular because it presents its argument via both video as well as a smartly formatted website. The text in the website includes links to actual peer-reviewed research articles that refute the MBTI.

LA Johnson for NPR Cory Turner , reporting for NPR, found that differences in survey word choice affected research participant support of the Common Core in education. The story follows two polling organizations and the exact phrasing they used when they asked participants whether or not they support the Common Core. Support for the Core varied by *20%* based upon the phrasing (highlighted below): Education Next  Question : "As you may know, in the last few years states have been deciding whether or not to use the Common Core, which are standards for reading and math that are the same across the states. In the states that have these standards, they will be used to hold public schools accountable for their performance. Do you support or oppose the use of the Common Core standards in your state?" (53% support) PDK/Gallup Question: "Do you favor or oppose having the teachers in your community use the Common Core State Standards to guide what they teach?"  (...