The thing about my way of teaching stats is that my cool, novel examples get old really fast. Like, pop culture is on a thirty-day cycle. Anyway, YEARS ago, 2014 to be exact, I blogged about illustrating bimodal data distributions using baby name data from the Social Security Administration. Specifically, when an older name comes back into vogue, it has a bimodal distribution when you plot time on the X axis. I stand by this example. However, all of the data illustrations come from 2014. When our traditionally aged college students were 6 or 7. Which makes this example feel a little stale. However, here is some data, courtesy of Redditor fevaah , showing old names that are back in vogue through 2025 ! And Eleanor, Violet, Nora, and Hazel are here, illustrating bimodal distributions for a new generation. If you used my old baby-name data, this is a quick, easy refresh for your lectures (or a fun new addition if you didn't). If this idea was help...
Dr. Morton Anne Gernsbacher has freely shared her WHOLE Psychological Statistics class with the world. No paywalls, no log-ins. Divided up sensibly, including sections on effect sizes and Bayesian. With some assistance from Chelsea Andrews, she created this phenomenal resource for all of us to use. While I'm focusing on her stats class, be sure to check out her amazing Research Methods and Psychological Effects of the Internet courses. DO NOTE: I'm not primarily recommending this directly as a resource as a class for students. I'm recommending it to you, instructors, as a source of great, free statistical readings and teaching ideas that you could incorporate into your own classes. This is especially helpful if you are trying to teach without a textbook or if you are just looking for additional ways of explaining tough statistical concepts to your students. Here are a few things she shares that you could use: 1. Plenty of guidance for teaching via Excel/Google Sheets/App...