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Statistics hiding in plain sight: How this four-minute long interview on polling data can be used in class

Statistical literacy is important. I love examples of folks using statistical concepts without being snobby statistical gatekeepers.  For instance, see jargon-free statistical literacy that helps people make important decisions about their children's health or informs the  immigration debate .   As stats teachers, I think we are remiss if we don't talk about political polling in our classes. At least a little bit. Here is a brief, nonpartisan interview about political polling you can use in class to see whether students can identify the concepts they've learned. Here is a short  NPR i nterview o n  how to think properly about political polling. If you use the interview in class, you could ask your students to identify the statistics and research methods mentioned.  I clocked margin of error,  sampling error,  and research methodology evaluation. If using an audio interview isn't your thing, check out t his summary piece from NPR, based on the...

CNN, exit polls, and chi-square examples.

CNN posted a whole mess of exit polling data that illustrates how different demographics voted last night. And through my "I teach too many stats classes" lense, I see many examples of chi-square.

I think they work at a conceptual level to clearly illustrate how chi-square looks at people falling into different categories, then measures whether the distribution of people is by chance or not.

If you actually wanted to test these using chi square, I would suggest you should problem delete the other/no answer column (or else they will all come out as statistical significant, I would wager).






EDIT (11/14/16); Daniel Findley made of video demonstrating how to use Excel to conduct chi-square tests on the marital status data. Check it out here.

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