TL;DR: Birds fly away from men a bit sooner than they fly away from women. Full stop. Here is the  original article,  and here is a write-up from  Nautilus . I love bird research. I'll get into why below. For now, let me show you how to use this example to teach three different lessons in a stats class. 1. Independent t test example with a data set The researchers shared their data. The researchers didn't analyze this data with a t test. But they did share this data visualization that looks a whole lot like one: Damn, I love the new trend of the box/violin/jitter plot. FYI: Researcher gender/the IV is labeled "gender," and how far the birds were before they flew away/the DV is labeled "FID" (flight initiation distance). Also, I love this example because the data violate the assumption of equal variance and provide a case for discussing Welch's test. 2. Conceptual example for Factorial ANOVA This example pairs well with a  previous blog post  featuring ...

While most of my class time is dedicated to the specifics of performing and interpreting inferential tests, basic statistical literacy and thinking are equally important lessons. Here are some of the big-picture literacy ideas I want my students to think about in my stats classes: 1. How can we use data to understand patterns to make predictions? 2. How can we separate the signal from the noise?  3. How can data actually inform real life and current events? 4. How can we repurpose existing data in a world where data is everywhere? Here is an example I JUST found that addresses all of these ideas. The  Pentagon Pizza Report is an X account that monitors Google "Popular times" data in pizzerias near the Pentagon to predict military activity.  The X account asserts that unusually high, later-than-normal foot traffic at pizzerias near the Pentagon (x) may indicate that Pentagon military staff are working late and need to grab take-out for dinner(y).  Most recently, the...

My dad is retired Air Force and my baby brother has been in the USAF for over 20 years. Growing up, my dad used to talk about all of the services the USAF provides to our country and the world. It employs many  musicians , advances  airplane safety  for civilians, and conducts and sponsors  numerous research projects . This post will focus on the USAF's unique position to advance weather and climate science through data collection in large, specialized aircraft that can fly through hurricanes.  Weather forecasting requires data. As reported by Debbie Elliot for NPR , the Air Force collects data that, specifically, will help us better predict severe weather and save lives.  Aside: This whole mission started on a bet: HOW TO USE IN CLASS: -I tell my students repeatedly that I'm not trying to turn them into the world's best statisticians. I'm trying to help them learn how to be themselves, with their interests and abilities, but fluent in statistical lite...