Sometimes it is easier to demonstrate real-world relevance than others.
Last week students in my research methods course read Charles Wheelan, Naked Statistics, Ch. 12, and Ashley A. Smith, “Students Taking More Credit Courses and Introductory Math Faring Well,” Inside Higher Ed, 7 December 2018.
They then had to answer this question: What mistakes are Nevada officials making with data about community college students?
As written, the Inside Higher Ed story describes people who should know better falling victim to omitted variable bias and confusing correlation with causation. Although I might be making similar mistakes in evaluating in-class discussion about the assignment, I think that students found it more interesting than most because the assignment was about other students.
Soon afterward, two similar items came across my radar:
Students prefer mixing and matching online with on-campus courses.
Common premises about college students are wrong.
I shared these with my students, as additional examples of analyzing (or not) data about their peers.