One model to rule them all · Teach Data Science

As we near the end of our summer posts, we've started to think more broadly about statistics as well as data science courses. Today's post considers a broad question relevant for many courses: how can we teach statistical thinking without having to resort to introducing a profusion of tests? Jonas Kristoffer Lindeløv proposed an elegant approach using the idea that common statistical tests are linear models. Cheatsheets in R and Python describe how standard statistical tests (e.g., the one-sample t-test) can be undertaken using the lm() and glm() functions. The results are fully equivalent.