https://pudding.cool/2018/01/chyrons/ This example doesn't demonstrate a specific statistical test. Instead, it demonstrate how data can be used to answer a hotly contested question: Are certain media outlets biased? How can we answer this? Charlie Smart, working for The Pudding, addressed this question via content analysis. Here is how he did it: And here are some of their findings: Yes, Fox News was talking about the Clintons a lot. While over at MSNBC, they discussed the investigation into Russia and the 2016 elections ore frequently. While kneeling during the anthem was featured on all networks, it was featured most frequently on Fox And context matters. What words are associated with "dossier"? How do the different networks contextualize President Trump's tweets? Another reason I like this example: It points out the trends for the three big networks. So, we aren't a bunch of Marxist professors ragging on FOX, and we ar...

You know what, I've been doing this blog for YEARS and I don't have a single example of moderation. Until now. This CNN story summarizes brand new research findings that indicate that alcohol and/or tobacco use mediate the relationship between drinking really hot tea and developing esophageal cancer. So, the really hot tea-cancer relationship does not exist in the absence of smoking and/or alcohol consumption, but it is there if you do indulge in either smoking or alcohol consumption. And writing this post reminded me of this Arrested Development moment: Aside: -This article could also be a good example of the need for cross cultural research: Americans don't love tea as much as other parts of the world do. And, super hot tea (145 degrees +) is very popular outside of the US and Europe. The present research was conducted in China.

This is a very silly example for psychometrics. It highlights how hard it is to quantify certain things, but we keep on trying. While psychologists struggle with creating scales to rate things like intelligence, aggression, and anxiety, WeRateDogs struggles with encompassing all that is good about dogs on a 1-10 rating scale. See below. WeRateDogs is a Twitter account. And they rate dogs. And every single dogs is rated between 12 and 15 out of 10 points, because every dog is a very good dog. But...I do see the psychometric flaw of their rating system. And so did Twitter user Brant, We Rate Dog's Reviewer 2. And Brant is right, right? The flaw in the rating system is part of the gimmick of the website, but psychometrically inaccurate.. It would be a funny class exercise to create a rubric for a true rating scale for a dog.

This video provides an example of mode when it reveals survey data about the most common for of birth control used by married women or women who live with their partners. Before revealing the answer, they have strangers sitting in a produce department of a grocery store discussing their best guess for the answer? Huh? Well, at least you get to listen to strangers awkwardly talking about pulling out in front of a bunch of vegetables. I think that traditionally aged college students are a little surprised by the modal response: Sterilization. This opens up the opportunity to talk about the sampling: They could only survey women who are electing to use birth control (so, not trying to get pregnant) AND in a long term relationship, so a more permanent form of family planning is probably more attractive.

Robert Grant's website Draw My Data  provides you with a blank scatter plot graph. You add your dots, and the website generates M and SD for your X and Y, as well as r for the relationship between X and Y. It even generates a data set for download. My Twitter handle, @notawful, has an r of -.485. Via http://robertgrantstats.co.uk/drawmydata.html Great for illustrating a specific kind of relationship (positive, negative, etc.) to your students. Also allows for much goofiness, like Alberto Cairo, who plotted a T-rex and went viral. And then the T-rex plot, and a bunch of other plots, were used to create an animated, updated version of Anscombe's Quartet . And that was presented at a conference by Matejka & Fitzmaurice. https://www.autodeskresearch.com/publications/samestats So, lots of stats goodness here. You can let your students play with Draw Your Data or use that website to generate data sets for use in class. You can also use the dino data to illustr...

Your students have heard of probiotics. In pill form, in yogurt, and if you are a psychology major, there is even rumbling that probitotics and gut health are linked to mental health. But this is still an emerging area of research. And NPR did a news story about a clinical trial that seeks to understand how probiotics may or may not help eliminate GI problems in children who are on antibiotics . Ask any parent, and they can tell you how antibiotics, which are wonderful, can mess with a kid's belly. When they are already sick. Science is trying to provide some insight into the health benefits of probiotics in this specific situation. They spell out the methodology: How to use in class: 1) I love about this example is that the research is happening now, and very officially as an FDA   clinical trial . So talk to your students about clinical trials, which I think you can then related back to why it is good to pre-register your non-FDA research, with explicit research m...

Anna Scott, reporting for NPR, described changes to the homeless census in LA . It applies to stats/RM because an improvement in survey methodology lead to a big change in the city's estimation of number of homeless young adults. I also think this is also a good piece for teaching because the story keeps coming back to Japheth Greg Dyer, a homeless college student who aged out of the foster care and was sort of tossed into the world on his own. Straight from NPR: Homelessness hasn't necessarily increased dramatically. Instead, these findings seem to indicate that they finally have a reliable way to count young adult homelessness due to a better understanding of young adults. The dramatic increase is methodological.