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...
1) Not every example needs to be big and fancy. 2) Sometimes you just need to refresh a lecture. By "refresh", I mean both new-to-you examples and examples that are, objectively, new. That is why I'm adding this example from the New York Times to my Fall 2026 classes. It was published in the summer of 2026, based on 2025 data that explores both the overall popularity of emojis AND generational differences in emoji usage. How to use in class: 1) A lesson in repurposing existing data sets: 2) Ordinal/rank order data: Here are the top ten emojis for 2025, as well as their change in rank. The rise of the "loudly crying face" is concerning! If a top ten list exists...then certainly a bottom 10 list exists. See: Please see below for emojis 490-500. Poor bread. You can also discuss rank data with this list of fastest rising emojis. Or you can use this example of emojis that are increasing in popularity, with a dash of relative percentages: 3) They also looked at emo...