Data Literacy Project- 1102
1. Introduction to Using Numbers in history
For the next two weeks, we’re going to focus on using numbers in history. You do not need any higher-level math skills to understand these lessons.
The following worksheet guides you through some initial introductory exercises. Please answer all questions in complete sentences.
2. Learning Outcomes
At the end of this lesson you will be able to:
Demonstrate an understanding mean, median, and mode.
Demonstrate an understanding of linear and logarithmic scales.
Demonstrate an understanding of the Monty Hall statistics problem.
Successfully navigate gapminder.org to analyze historical data.
Accurately answer statistical questions in complete sentences.
3. Please play a game.
Go to http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/activities/SimpleMontyHall/
Play the game. Do you understand why you should always switch?
If not, go to http://webs.wofford.edu/bednarjt/monty/montyhall.html for an explanation.
4. Averages
To extend your familiarity with numbers, let’s deal with a simple concept: an average. There are three types of averages, the mean, median, and mode.
For a text definition of these terms, see https://www.thoughtco.com/the-mean-median-and-mode–2312604
For video explanation, see https://www.khanacademy.org/math/probability/data-distributions-a1/summarizing-center-distributions/v/mean-median-and-mode
Questions: Please answer Let’s say a large village had 25 people die in a single year. Below is the age of each deceased villager.
I. Average the following ages: 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 5, 6, 9, 18, 18, 35, 45, 58, 72, 73, 75, 78, 88, 92, 107, 110. (25 numbers).
II. What is the mean age of death in this town?
III. What is the median (number in the middle of s string of numbers) age of death for this town?
IV. What is the mode (most commonly occurring number in string of numbers) age of death for this town?
V. If you are 34 years old, are you scared of dying next year? Why or why not?
As a historian, when you see the word “average” you always need to ask if it’s the mean, median, or mode and is that the most useful average for understanding the past.
If you’d like more help understanding mean, median, and mode, you can see a video here.
5. Gapminder
We’re going to use a data visualization tool called Gapminder.
It places data on a a graph, and can be animated with change over time using a “play” feature of years at the bottom.
The countries are color coded by continents and the size of the circle is an indication of population size.
6. Click arrow to expand data.
7. Expand X axis or Y axis for more categories
Clicking on the arrows next to the X or Y axis labels expands the categories to allow you to select other data. Not all data has historical parts or includes all countries.
8. Select Brazil, the U.S., Nigeria, China, India and the Netherlands on the right hand side.
o select, check the box next to the country.
Then, move the “Deselect” slider all the way to the left to fade out the rest of the countries. (1)
9. Make sure the Y axis is set to “Life expectancy” and the X axis is set to “Income per person” (these should be the default.)
Press play and watch the life expectancy (a linear scale) and the income per person (a logarithmic scale) progress over time.
10. Questions
What happens in around 1914–1919?
How can you explain these changes in the graph during those five years?
What historical events or conclusions might you draw from this movable graph?
11. Chose two categories to compare by clicking on the titles.
Here I’ve selected Income on the X axis and Babies per women.
Questions:
- What categories did you chose?
- After pressing play for your categories, what historical conclusions can you draw from your chart?
