I am absolutely NOT above pandering to undergraduates. For example, I use beer-related examples to illustrate t-test s,   correlation/regression , curvilinear relationships , and data mining/re-purposing . Here is some more. This data was collected to estimate how much more participants would pay for their beer if their beer was created in an environmentally sustainable manner. The answer? $1.30/six pack more. And 59% of respondents said that they would pay more for sustainable beer. NPR talked about it , as well as ways that breweries are going green. Here is a link to the original research . How to use in class: 1) The original research is shared via an open source journal . So, an opportunity to talk about open source research journals. 2) They data was collected via mTurk, another ancillary topics to discuss with your budding research methodologists. 3) The authors of the original study shared their beer survey data ! Analyze to your heart's content. 4) How c...

Alright, this example is a little more abstract, but stick with me. When you perform statistics, you are measuring or counting something. And sometimes the thing you want to measure is pretty straightforward. The number of sick days an employee takes. GPA. Parts per million of some thingy in the water. But sometimes statisticians, especially psychologists, have to get a little creative and indirect with the way we measure a thing. Like the MMPI. IQ tests are our best bet at encompassing someone's intelligence but are still not perfect. Sometimes, a statistician needs to find an approximation or proxy for the actual thing they are measuring. To explain this, show your students how the Federal Emergency Management Agency uses the Waffle House Index to determine how severely damaged a town is following a hurricane or tornado. http://www2.philly.com/philly/news/weather/hurricane-florence-waffle-house-index-20180912.html If you are one of the uninitiated, Waffle Houses are...

The Knot, a wedding planning website, collected data on the amount of money that brides and grooms spend on items for their weddings. They shared this information, as well as the average cost of a wedding in 2017. See the infographic below: BUT WAIT! If you dig into this data and the methodology, you'll find out that they only collected price points from couples who ACTUALLY PAID FOR THOSE ITEMS. https://xogroupinc.com/press-releases/the-knot-2017-real-weddings-study-wedding-spend/ Problems with this data to discuss with your students: 1) No one who got stuff for free/traded for stuff would have their $0 counted towards the average. For example, one of my cousins is a tattoo artist and he traded tattoos for use of a drone for photos of their outdoor wedding. 2) AND...if you didn't USE a service, your $0 wasn't added to their ol' mean value. For example, we had our wedding and reception at the same location, so we spent $0 on a ceremony site. 3) As poi...