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The challenge of developing great assignments

Taking advantage of really cool web based tools to enable students to ask questions and investigate answers. The challenge of developing great assignments. Marion Field Fass, Beloit College 2010. Hans Rosling and Gapminder : Watch his TED talks!.

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The challenge of developing great assignments

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  1. Taking advantage of really cool web based tools to enable students to ask questions and investigate answers The challenge of developing great assignments Marion Field Fass, Beloit College 2010

  2. Hans Rosling and Gapminder:Watch his TED talks!

  3. Gapminder: Goal to make data accessible and understandable • What’s here: Gapminder WORLD from UNICEF

  4. My basic question: Health and Wealth

  5. The cool question: Change over timeA key to history, public health, economic development

  6. Life Expectancy by energy consumption

  7. Chinese provinces: infant mortality and electric consumption

  8. Life Expectancy at Birth in 2000 versus Per Capita GDP in 2001 by province http://www.china-profile.com/data/overview_1.htm

  9. Gapminder: So much data, so little time • Characteristics of one country over time • Comparisons of regions • Investigations of economic development, income disparities • Hypotheses about related factors • What contributes to infant mortality? Maternal mortality? Literacy, doctors, trained birth attendants, etc. • How does infrastructure relate to economic development?

  10. Refining the assignment • First explore the possibilities • Then respond to a specific assignment (FYI) 1) 1820 to present -- what time periods represent the greatest increase in life expectancy? 2) Choose 5 countries from 5 different continents and look at life expectancy. What hypotheses do you have about differences you observe? 3) Repeat 1 and 2 using children per woman (Fertility) as your independent variable (horizontal axis). Does this change what you observe? What do you think is the relationship between fertility and life expectancy?

  11. Building an argument using graphs • GLOBAL HEALTH- first explore the possibilities in class • Using the data you have available on Gapminder, Measuredhs.com, and other sources, develop a visual argument that explores the questions raised in the introduction above. Which comes first- Health or wealth? Contrast countries or regions, focusing on 2 dependent variables- infant or child mortality and life expectancy, and at least 4 independent variables that help you tell your story.

  12. Challenges • Developing clear assignments • Explaining the graphs • Students are most successful if they simplify • Ruling out certain words in discussion- prove, cause • Using instead: correlate • Encouraning questions about variables

  13. Other amazing data to explore: Relative cost of low fat milk to soda http://maps.ers.usda.gov/FoodAtlas/

  14. Race in America

  15. http://www.nationmaster.com/country/ch/Age_distribution Age distribution China 2000 and 2050 http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/country.php US Census Bureau MOVING AGE PYRAMIC http://www.china-profile.com/data/ani_pop_1.htm

  16. 2 minute map-www.measuredhs.comUse of modern contraception in SE Asia

  17. How the world is changingwww.worldmapper.org Animation of Internet users 2000 to 2007

  18. Resources for investigation • Gapminder- tools and videos www.gapminder.org • Demographic and Health Surveys, www.measuredhs.com • Worldmapper, lots of cartograms, www.worldmapper.org • US Food Environment Atlas, http://maps.ers.usda.gov/FoodAtlas/ • BP Statistical Report on World Energy, with charting tool, http://www.bp.com/productlanding.do?categoryId=6929&contentId=7044622 • http://chinadataonline.org/ Subscription, very costly • http://www.chinatoday.com/ Limited information at China Today • China agricultural and economic data http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/China/ • China population pyramids, http://www.nationmaster.com/country/ch/Age_distribution • World population pyramids, US Census Bureau http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/country.php • China Profile. http://www.china-profile.com/ FREE

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