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How I Introduce Statistics to Graduate Students
The math I use to understand what is observed in studies and experiments, and how those results differ from what is expected.
The classic example I use with biostatistics (statistics of biological data) students to kick off the course is this: A school of 1,000 students has a measles outbreak. 300 students come down with measles before we can order everyone to stay home for a few weeks. Of those 300, 150 are vaccinated and 150 are not. Is this proof that the vaccine doesn’t work, and that students have a 50/50 shot at getting measles if they are vaccinated?
From there, we start with the basics of statistics. While these are graduate students who I expect to have some background courses in statistics, I also understand that statistics are not intuitive for everyone. They weren’t for me. My statistics courses in college were a fever dream, with a professor who opted to tell us more about his exploits at the casino than the fundamentals behind how the numbers work. So, I took it easy for the first few lectures I gave.
“Suppose you flip a coin,” I tell my students. “You would be right to assume you’ll get a heads or tails. Those are the two most likely outcomes. They’re a binary outcome if the coin is fair and truly has a 50/50 chance…
