Pumpkin Spice & Everything Nice
Fallin' for Data
Crunching Numbers (and Leaves)
Famous Fails and Data Tales
Autumn Around the World
100

An orange squash originating in Central America. 

What is pumpkin?

100

In data visualization, this type of chart is ideal for showing parts of a whole.

What is a (pumpkin) pie chart?

100

The symbol Σ in statistics means to do this.

What is sum (add)?

100

This health startup’s data scandal serves as a cautionary tale in ethics.

What is Theranos?

100

In Canada, Thanksgiving is celebrated in this month.

What is October?

200

Starbucks released its Pumpkin Spice Latte in this year, the same year Facebook became available to the public.

What is 2003?

200

The “mean” of a dataset represents this statistical concept.

What is the average?

200

A dataset’s “spread” or “variation” can be measured by this metric.

What is standard deviation?

200

This company lost $100 billion in one day due to misreported ad metrics in 2022.

What is Meta (Facebook)?

200

This popular German festival features pretzels, lederhosen, and lots of beer.

What is Oktoberfest?

300

This spice blend includes cloves, nutmeg, ginger, and this fourth ingredient that comes from the inner bark of a tree.

What is cinnamon?

300

If you analyze 10 years of leaf color data, you’re studying this type of trend.

What is a time series?

300

If correlation = 0.9 between sweater sales and temperature drop, the relationship is this.

What is strong positive correlation?

300

A 2010 Excel error in this field led to major misinterpretations of debt research.

What is economics?

300

In Mexico, this colorful holiday honors loved ones who have passed, with marigolds and sugar skulls.

What is Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead)?

400

Data scientists might track this variable to predict when fall foliage peaks.

What is temperature (or average daily temp)?

400

In Python, this structure repeats code until a condition is no longer true — like raking leaves until the yard is clean.

What is a loop?

400

Regression lines can predict how something changes — like this autumn metric dropping daily.

What is temperature?

400

In 2012, Target used purchase data to predict this — before customers even told them.

What is pregnancy?

400

This European country celebrates “Samhain,” an ancient festival that inspired Halloween.

What is Ireland (or Scotland)?

500

This U.S. state grows the most pumpkins per year.

What is Illinois?

500

You train a model to predict fall coffee sales using historical data. What is the dependent variable?

What are coffee sales?

500

When you test two hypotheses about fall weather patterns, you’re performing this kind of analysis.

What is hypothesis testing?

500

This 2016 event highlighted the risks of biased data in machine learning.

What is Microsoft’s Tay chatbot?

500

In China, this fall festival celebrates the harvest and features mooncakes.

What is the Mid-Autumn Festival?