Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Uni·Cen Documentation Report 2: Standardized Census Data Tables, Zack Taylor

UNI-CEN documentation

The Unified Infrastructure for Canadian Census Research, or UNI·CEN, is a comprehensive database of historical and contemporary Canadian aggregate Census data, digital boundary files, and ancillary material, all provided in modern data formats. The goal of the project is to liberate Canadian Census data so that it can be easily used by academic researchers, students, and the public.

The UNI·CEN Standardized Census Data Tables series contains reformatted versions of all publicly available digital Census data. This documentation report describes the data sources, tabular formats, and file types used.

An Introduction To Calling Bullshit: Learning To Think Outside The Black Box, Jevin D. West, Carl T. Bergstrom

Numeracy

Bergstrom, Carl T. and Jevin D. West. 2020. Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World. (New York: Random House) 336 pp. ISBN 978-0525509202.

While statistical methods receive greater attention, the art of critically evaluating information in everyday life more commonly depends on thinking outside the black box of the algorithm. In this piece we introduce readers to our book and associated online teaching materials—for readers who want to more capably call “bullshit” or to teach their students to do the same.

Occupational Licensing And Immigrants, Hugh Cassidy, Tennecia Dacass

Economics Faculty Scholarship

This study examines the incidence and impact of occupational licensing on immigrants using two sources of data: the Current Population Survey and the Survey of Income and Program Participation. We find that immigrants are significantly less likely to have a license than similar natives and that this gap is largest for men, workers in the highest education level, and nonnaturalized immigrants. The licensing rate increases with years since migration and shows large variation by immigrants’ region of origin. A lack of English proficiency reduces the probability that an immigrant has a license. The wage premium from having a license is …

Drawing Normal Curves: A Visual Analysis Of Feedback In Writing-To-Learn Assignments In An Introductory Statistics Course For Community College Students, Samantha Estrada Aguilera

The Qualitative Report

Writing-to-learn benefits students in polishing their communication skills and understanding of statistical concepts cultivating a deeper understanding of statistics. A series of writing-to-learn activities were given to introductory statistics students at a community college in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States. Historically, research on the teaching and learning of statistics has been performed on undergraduates while overlooking the experiences of community college students in learning statistics. A total of 79 students completed the feedback instrument over the course of three semesters (Summer 2017, Fall 2017, and Spring 2018). The feedback instrument included three Likert scale questions, two open-ended …

Applying The Data: Predictive Analytics In Sport, Anthony Teeter, Margo Bergman

Access*: Interdisciplinary Journal of Student Research and Scholarship

The history of wagering predictions and their impact on wide reaching disciplines such as statistics and economics dates to at least the 1700’s, if not before. Predicting the outcomes of sports is a multibillion-dollar business that capitalizes on these tools but is in constant development with the addition of big data analytics methods. Sportsline.com, a popular website for fantasy sports leagues, provides odds predictions in multiple sports, produces proprietary computer models of both winning and losing teams, and provides specific point estimates. To test likely candidates for inclusion in these prediction algorithms, the authors developed a computer model, and test …

Zero Textbook Cost Syllabus For Psy 2100 (Statistics For Social Science), Adam Shavit

Open Educational Resources

You will learn to summarize, make sense of, and base decisions on real life data. You will learn to read and create verbal and graphical summaries from measurements, for example from randomized experiments and correlational surveys. You will also learn to estimate your confidence in a pattern of results. This will be applied to inferring from limited observations to more general phenomenon, and to compare differences between groups. We will also learn to describe and quantify co-variation between measurements. In addition, you will get experience in conducting statistical analyses using software, working on real datasets from psychological experiments.

A Brief Statistical Introduction Of The Global Refugee Problems With Data Analysis, April Yan Zhang

Honor Scholar Theses

No abstract provided.

Social Justice, Numeracy, And Teaching Statistics At A Community College, Edward Volchok

Numeracy

The author of this article reflects on the issues of justice, democracy, and numeracy. As one who has taught statistics in a community college for over 12 years, spent 28 years as a Marketing Consultant, and holds a PhD in political science, the author’s thesis is that while an advanced, democratic society can only be just with a numerate citizenry, fostering numeracy is not easy. In this article the author describes the daunting tasks of trying to define what justice is and reviews activities from his statistics class that help students develop their numeracy.

The Effect Of Unemployment On Democratic Warfare, Andres Rakower

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This study was done to see the effects of a war on the economy and the internal politics of the United States. In selecting the engagement, we would study we agreed the Iraq War would be aided by a large amount of sampling of public opinion that was more nuanced than in previous wars. The Iraq War was a very complicated war, as it was controversial from the beginning and became a political issue while continuing to be a war fought by Americans abroad. Based on the literature, there were many starting effects and assumptions that were accounted for such …

Teaching Introductory Statistics To Graduate Students In The Social Sciences: A Mixed Method Investigation Of The Effectiveness Of Simulations In Statistics Education, Liuli Huang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of using simulations as an instructional tool in an introductory doctoral level statistics course. The study focuses on the impacts of simulations on students’ attitudes and understanding of statistical concepts, as well as how the simulations could inspire students’ positive attitudes and improve statistics performance or would fail to help. In addition, since the statistics anxiety has been a primary obstacle to students’ statistics education, and “statistics anxiety” is experienced by as many as 80% of graduate students (Onwuegbuzie, 2004). The researcher is interested to explore the details of …

Two Decades Of Progress For Minorities In Aviation, David C. Ison, Rene Herron, Linda Weiland

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

Diversity within the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields has historically lagged behind that which is found in other vocational paths. Aviation has also suffered poor diversity with virtually no participation among professional pilots. With both the literature specifying the benefits of diversity in the aviation workplace and potential shortages of pilots looming, it is in the interest of aerospace stakeholders to have access to the most comprehensively diverse employee pool possible. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the trends in participation by minorities who completed professional pilot education programs in the United States. Data concerning the …

The Probability Of Data’S Inherent Sexiness: A Review Of Naked Statistics: Stripping The Dread From The Data, Sean Swenson

The Qualitative Report

Charles Wheelan’s Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data (2013) reintroduces the field of statistics to the apathetic reader in an approachable and sympathetic way. By focusing on the acquisition of appreciation for the field over straightforward comprehension, Wheelan is able to achieve what many qualitative researchers have striven for in reintroducing the field to those thought previously lost.

Analyzing Alcohol Behavior In San Luis Obispo, Ariana Montes

Statistics

No abstract provided.

A Primer On Multivariate Analysis Of Variance (Manova) For Behavioral Scientists, Russell T. Warne

Russell T Warne

Perceptions Of The Communications Studies Major: Is There A Female Stereotype?, Kyle Petersen, Karina Almaguer

Communication Studies

This paper investigates whether there is or is not a correlation between feminine perceptions of Communications and the relevance of the major. One Hundred Cal Poly San Luis Obispo students were asked to complete a survey that included basic student demographics as well as if they have taken courses within the major or know anyone within it, their perceived relevance of the major, and whether they believed it to be for males or females. The test between the two variables was shown as approaching statistical significance. After analyzing these results, using feminine perceptions as the independent variable and the relevance …

Data Clustering For Fitting Parameters Of A Markov Chain Model Of Multi-Game Playoff Series, Christopher M. Rump

Applied Statistics and Operations Research Faculty Publications

We propose a Markov chain model of a best-of-7 game playoff series that involves game-togame dependence on the current status of the series. To create a relatively parsimonious model, we seek to group transition probabilities of the Markov chain into clusters of similar game-winning frequency. To do so, we formulate a binary optimization problem to minimize several measures of cluster dissimilarity. We apply these techniques on Major League Baseball (MLB) data and test the goodness of fit to historical playoff outcomes. These state-dependent Markov models improve significantly on probability models based solely on home-away game dependence. It turns out that …

Maine Population Projections, 1970-2020, State Planning Office, State Of Maine

Maine Collection

Maine Population Projections, 1970-2020

State Planning Office, Executive Department, State of Maine, July 1973.

Kenneth M. Curtis, Governor and Philip M. Savage, Director.

Contents: Introduction / Total Population Trends in Maine 1970-2020 / Natural Increase / Net Migration / Maine's Future Population / Population Projections by Planning and Development District / Projected Age Groups by Planning and Development District / Appendix

Also contains maps, figures, and tables.