Stage One Reviewing the Data

There will be three assigned "stages" that will assist you in completing your final project.  To receive a grade for your final project, all three of these stages must be completed and turned in by the assigned due date.  If you do not turn in all three stages by the assigned due dates, you will receive a zero for your final project grade.

You have been given a topic and list of at least four tables from the 2009 Statistical Abstract of the US. This activity is just the first step of your group project and is intended to familiarize you with your data. As the quarter progresses there will be other assignments that will lead you through the rest of the project.

I.  Choose a project topic: 

1. Review the Project List for the 2009 Statistical Abstract, and select a topic that seems interesting to your group.
2. At the top of your Word document, write down the number and title of your project and the names of all members of your groups.
3. You will notice a list of tables for each topic.

II.  For each table listed under your topic do the following:

A.  Open the table. In your word document, write the number and title of the table. You can just copy and paste the number and title from the Excel chart.

B.  What information does this table contain? Use the title and the column and row headings as a guide. How are the numbers measured (in thousands, in percents, etc.)?  For what years are there data?  Make a note of any relevant footnotes in your own words (i.e., DO NOT copy and paste the footnotes from Excel into your Word document).

C.  Give two values from each table and explain what the numbers represent making sure to include units. 

Example:  Here are two examples of what your activity should look like. You should complete questions 1-3 for all of your tables.

1.  Table 94. Abortions, by Selected Characteristics: 1990 to 2001
2.  This table breaks down abortions by age, race, marital status, prior number of live births, prior number of abortions, and gestational age. The table looks at all of these categories in both absolute numbers and percentages for 1990, 2000, and 2001. I don't think we will make use of the abortion ratio columns.
3.   In 2001, 723 thousand (723,000) white women had abortions.
      In 2001, 18% of all abortions were performed on married women (82% were on unmarried women).

1.  Table 258. High School Dropouts by Race and Hispanic Origin
2.  This table looks at status dropouts and event dropouts (which we will have to understand for our project) for race and gender from 1975 to 2003.
3.  In 1975 10.1% of all male Hispanic students dropped out. In 2003 3.7% of all white students dropped out.

III.  Looking Forward...

List at least three to five questions you hope to answer in your paper using the above data.  (You will be given some suggestions which you may use but you must come up with at least two questions on your own.)

IV.  Local Connection (Extra Credit)

Suggest two ways (or write two questions) that you can tie in a local connection.