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Case Study - Storks vs Babies

Author(s): Carrie Diaz Eaton

Bates College and QUBES

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Summary:
This is a R project based on the Robert Matthews paper Storks vs Babies. The idea is to replicate the results of the paper, learn a bit about R for linear fits and graphing and explore correlation vs causation in a fun way.

Description

This is a R project based on the Robert Matthews paper Storks vs Babies. The idea is to replicate the results of the paper (replication), learn a bit about R for linear fits and graphing, (including pulling fit coefficients from the summary stats), exposure to p-values, and explore correlation versus causation in a fun way. This paper was discussed also as part of the videos from Calling Bull on Causality.

I run this as a in-class lab day. Typically students have already been exposed to the case study, read the project description before class, and can finish within a 80 minute class period (though I also do other intro stuff, so I think you could do this in an hour class). It is constructed so that I or a TA check off people in class, typically seeing the original code run, ask about an alternative explanation, and then seeing that code implemented as part of the "modify" activity.

Notes

This could easily be adapted for Google Spreadsheets/Excel.

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