A gentle introduction to principal component analysis using tea-pots, dinosaurs, and pizza

Abstract

Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is a powerful statistical technique for reducing the complexity of data and making patterns and relationships within the data more easily understandable. By using PCA, students can learn to identify the most important features of a data set, visualize relationships between variables, and make informed decisions based on the data. As such, PCA can be an effective tool to increase students data literacy by providing a visual and intuitive way to understand and work with data. This article outlines a teaching strategy to introduce and explain PCA using basic mathematics and statistics together with visual demonstrations.