AFR/SOC 132: Burnside (Fall 2024)

Three Student Learning Objectives of this Exercise in Quantitative Literacy

1. To gain familiarity with Census data to see social facts about racial groups

2. To acquire and practice more knowledge about making and describing bivariate and multivariate tables (crosstabs)

3. To explain (interpret) the crosstabs results using specialized vocabulary of sociology

Assignment:

● Select an SSDAN dataset to examine current social facts to describe the patterns and relationships between the variables that you see.

● Examine the independent variable of Race/Ethnicity and a dependent variable of your choice.

● What questions come into your mind as you read the frequency distributions (marginals), identify independent and dependent variables, and formulate cross-tabulations?

● Review two relevant articles (as your literature review) in your paper.

Report your cross-tabs findings as part of your documented essay. Findings will include a hypothesis and rationale of data variables selected, description of variables (marginals), cross-tabs (contingency tables) showing your results with interpretation, and discussion of connections between data and theoretical concepts that you are applying.

Dates:

● Oct 21st, 23rd, 25th: Small Group Dynamics and Understanding the Assignment.

● Oct 23rd: Literature Review Workshop in Hutchins Library; complete SSDAN Instruction work pages.

● Oct 28th, 30th: Refining hypothesis and obtaining data; bringing laptops to class. Print two pages that show your hypothesis and describe your tables. Arrange for Peer Review outside of class (before Nov 4th) and turn it in when you submit your final SSDAN report.

● Nov 1st, and Nov 4th: Submit FINAL SSDAN report on Moodle: length = 4-6 pages, including tables. ALSO: Prepare Oral Presentations of research, 4 minutes each (with 2-3 PowerPoint slides) team member (12-15 min/team).

HOW TO USE WEBCHIP AND THE SSDAN

http://www.ssdan.net/datacounts

1. Go to ssdan.net

2. Click: WebChip 4.0

3. Under Collection, select acs2022

4. Select data set (example: Asianpop) The select state button does not work.

5. Click: Compute Marginals

6. Under Choose Variables, you will select Crosstab Variables.

7. In the row, you will put the dependent variable: Which is being tested or measured by the independent variable.

8. In the column, you will put the independent variable: Which measures the dependent variable (example: age or time).

9. You have the option of using the control variable, which is fixed and will help you see your data set in more depth. This step is optional.

10. Under Generate Table: click percent down. You have the option of making a graph. Try them out and find the one that makes the most sense for your data.

ADDITIONAL TIPS AND WORK SHEET FOR GETTING STARTED

Work Sheet (Getting Started) Data analysis module: Instructions

Dataset Description:

A. Variables: become acquainted with attributes (features) of each variable to help identify which variable you will treat as an independent (X) and which to treat as a dependent variable (Y).

Dependent Variable:______________

Independent Variable:______________

B. Frequencies: a frequency table gives an overall sense of the distribution of a particular variable or set of variables.

C. To examine the frequencies of each variable, Click on “Compute Marginals”; include a marginal table for your dependent and one for your independent variable in your final report.

Describe some of the percentages you see here. We tend to talk more about percentages, rather than raw numbers, but do include raw numbers as totals when you are making your cross-tabs tables.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hypothesis (bivariate): Make hypotheses (your educated guess) about what you expect to find for the variables of your choosing in the data set:

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

CROSS-TABS (Bivariate Analysis):

To run cross-tabs, you will need to tell the program which variable is your dependent variable and which is your independent one and to percentage your tables down (do not use “across” for this assignment). Remember the following:

Independent Variable (X): the variable that influences or affects another variable

Dependent Variable (Y): the variable that is influenced by, or depends upon, another variable

Do the following:

1. Go to the section labeled “Choose Variables” on the left.

2. Click the down arrow next to the box labeled “Row” and select a variable.

For the purpose of this assignment, always put your dependent variable in the ROW box.

3. Now you will need to choose your column variable. For this assignment, always put your independent variables in the COLUMN box.

4. Now scroll down to the section labeled “Generate Table” and click “percentage down.” This should bring up your bivariate, cross-tab table.

5. Entitle your first cross-tab (bivariate):

Table 1:_____________________________________________

Write your interpretation of your first crosstab (bivariate) results:

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

6. Making a chart: Scroll down further on the left, and you’ll see “Generate Chart: with four options. Play around with the four options to find what makes most sense for graphically depicting your data. (Hint, not all of these charts will make sense.) Which chart did you choose? Briefly explain your rationale:

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Optional Step: Conducting the MULTIVARIATE CROSS-TABS:

Return to your Choose Crosstab box to generate another (second) crosstab by selecting original variables, and also select third variable to us as a control.

1. Briefly describe the third variable to be used as a control in your

multivariate hypothesis using its frequency distribution:

2. The control option is visible by the “rows” and “columns” drop down.

3. Generate Table, using Percent Down.

4. Read and interpret your new results

5. Write your interpretation of your results.

6. Integrate you interpretation of your results.

7. Integrate your data interpretations with your library articles literature review.

How to Insert Tables Using ‘Snip-tool’ on Windows

1. Press and hold: “windows-key” + “shift-key” + “S”.

a. This should activate the snip-tool feature on windows; think of it as a screenshot that you can crop with your cursor.

2. Fit your rectangular snip tool to the charts you would like to use in your paper.

a. You should then see a pop-up notification on your computer showing you “Snip and Sketch” with an image of your chart.

3. Click on the notification.

4. Make any editing adjustments on that image (tidying up the crop).

5. Save as image on your computer so you may add it into your essay from whichever word processor you are using.

Research Team Members: Team Name & Color* Group to research

Team : JAMA – Michaela, Adnan, Aaliyah, Jessica. African Americans

Team : PANIC & Purple – Lakot, Kyle, Haylee, Nesly. Hispanics

Team : MISFITS – Chrystal, Ulvi, Kamu, Chidinma. Native Americans

Team: 3 Musketeers & Blue -Adrianna, Benjamin, Nevaeh. Arab Americans

Team : ORANGE – Justin, Amelie, Kyla, Sydney. Asian Americans

Note: Team color is optional.

Question: What belongs in your DATA ANALYSIS Essay-style REPORT (outline of items)?

Introduction

Brief Literature Review (minimum of two articles)

Data Tables (tables need numbers, titles and clearly labeled)

Results/Findings: Discuss your descriptions of variables, bivariate tables (cross-tabs), along with hypotheses.

Optional: if multivariate tables were constructed, you may analyze those but for this assignment they are not expected.

Conclusions: As part of you conclusion, do remind your audience of your main findings and discuss reasons why you think the similarities and/or differences. Applying sociological concepts, and theoretical perspectives throuhout your process, indicate hich reasons you find more relevant.

Works Cited: In addition to providing in-text documentation, be sure to have a Works Cited/Resources page at the end of your paper. To cite the ssdan data sets, try this example: <http://ssdan.net/cgi-bin/datacounts/webChipLauncher_choice2.cgi> [date you got your information from the website]

Epilogue or Context Statement: Give yourself the last words on three Student Learning Objectives of this SSDAN data analysis. Tell to what extent your experiences conducting this analysis using U.S. Census data gave you the opportunity to accomplish some or all of the objectives, and make suggestions for future revisions.

1. Search for scholarly articles using my database recommendations

2. Repeat your search in multiple databases, mixing and matching keywords

3. Repeat your search in the book catalog - BANC - for books

4. "Cite forward" in Science Direct and Google Scholar for further sources

5. Organize your findings in some way: chronologically, geographically, topically/thematically, or methodologically