Before You Begin
The Challenge
For this assignment your group needs to collect data and then present findings using original charts/graphs in order to answer the questions posed in the assignment prompt. This assignment does not require advanced math skills. It does require you use the same critical thinking skills you use every time you evaluate a source of information whether it is a scholarly journal, Wikipedia entry, or news story--just keep in mind: finding reliable and relevant data takes time!
How Will You Measure Your Topic?
You will need to identify statistical indicators (or measures or variables) that support your response to the prompt. For example, if you were tasked with examining health in developing countries you might choose to measure health using infant mortality or life expectancy at birth as an indicator. Or, you could look at the percentage of the population that has access to a doctor, annual government spending on health care, or the prevalence of various diseases and medical conditions. Each of these indicators measures one aspect of the wider issue of health. Your task is to find the indicators that best addresses the prompt questions.
Example: Using Gapminder to Examine Health
- Gapminder.orgThe following screenshot shows one way to examine national health (life expectancy, presented on the y-axis) charted against one measure of national income (on the x-axis). Each bubble represents a different country with the size of the bubble reflecting the country's population size. You can use the drop-down menus on each axis to explore the other development-related indicators available for visualization in Gapminder.
