3 Pointers in the NBA

So apparently, the amount of 3 point shots have gone up over time in the NBA:

http://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2015/story/_/id/12993098/nba-35-year-war-3-pointer

The question is, why?

Here is what I am thinking:

1. We could look at the data and correlate the increasing diversity in the NBA with increased 3 point shots. 

2. We could also analyze the correlation of a shortened 3 point line and the accuracy of the 3 point shot. 

California Drought Trends

This article in the New York Time offers a great chance to discuss graphs and trends with students:

http://nyti.ms/1FFYEBC

I would show the bare bones graph (minus numbers and data) first:

This would allow me to ask the low floor "what do you notice" question and then eventually lead to some specifics.

Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Powerful visual of the great pacific Garbage patch:

http://visual.ly/great-pacific-garbage-patch

Harpers Index

Awesome pdf collection of data from Harpers:

http://harpers.org/departments/harpers-index/

Wow plotly

Beautiful graphs with data included:

https://plot.ly/feed/

Awesome

Online time for Kids

I came across this article and thought it was perfect for the classroom. I am thinking data, scientific notation, percents, ratios, linear and nonlinear modeling...


It is a great article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/education/20wired.html

Great source for Scientific Notation measurements

This site has an extensive list of measurements in scientific notation.

Thought this might help: http://www.falstad.com/scale/

Raw = Great data tool

All I have to say here is wow: http://raw.densitydesign.org/

Itunes Vs. Amazon, Linear versus exponential fit

great linear versus exponential fit:
https://twitter.com/mjfenton/status/460984209922732033

Female Named Hurricanes Kill More than Male Named Hurricanes

I heard this story yesterday morning on WNYC morning edition and thought it was perfect for a lesson on causation versus correlation. Essentially the data shows a strong correlation between fatalities and the gender of a hurricane name. Essentially they found that female named hurricanes are much more deadly then male named hurricanes. We can present this to our students with the obvious question, "does that mean that the names are causing higher fatalities?" The goal is to get students to recognize how absurd it would be if we thought this was causal. That would mean that we could simply make a hurricane safer (or more deadly) by changing its name. So this gives students a clear distinction between correlated and causal.

So what is happening? What is a possible cause? If you review the story, articles and data below, you can see that people respond differently to a storm based on its name. It is this response that seems to be causing the difference in results. If we are more afraid of a female named storm, we might take more precautions, etc.

This still leads to more questions and class discussion, why do we respond differently? Why do we give names to storms at all?

Here is the radio story:
http://www.npr.org/2014/06/03/318414845/research-americans-less-fearful-of-storms-with-female-names

You can also find this story on their site:
http://www.wnyc.org/story/research-americans-less-fearful-of-storms-with-female-names/

http://www.wnyc.org/story/study-americans-less-fearful-of-storms-named-after-women/


Article on WNYC: http://www.wnyc.org/story/do-female-named-hurricanes-need-to-lean-in/

Article on the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2014/06/02/female-named-hurricanes-kill-more-than-male-because-people-dont-respect-them-study-finds/

Original Study:
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/05/29/1402786111.abstract

Download Data from Original Study:
http://www.pnas.org/content/suppl/2014/05/30/1402786111.DCSupplemental

You can also find the data key here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5FTxsu-S1CoQ1ZSM2VSR3Yxc3c/edit?usp=sharing

And the original data here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5FTxsu-S1CoQVJIVzl4SV9yb0k/edit?usp=sharing

Player Sizes Scatter Plots

Great sports visualization using scatter plots:

Source (you can zoom in): http://sportchart.wordpress.com/2014/05/27/professional-athlete-size-comparison/