Using Numbers to Examine Our Communities

 

Presenter: Josh Radinsky, PhD  joshuar@uic.edu

Wednesday, 7/9           2:00 pm

Medill Room 301

 

This session will model an activity for teaching math skills in an investigation of students’ neighborhoods, using student observations and census data.  Participants will download census data for Chicago communities; make observations from aerial photographs of neighborhoods; and graph differences between populations of different communities and schools.

 

Software for this session:           Microsoft Excel, Internet Explorer

 

Session outline:

1.      “Mathematizing” the neighborhood

§         Turning students’ observations into data

§         MapQuest aerial photo and map activity (see tutorial)

§         Making a neighborhood data map

2.      Gathering block-level census data

§         American Factfinder queries (see tutorial)

§         Classroom data table

3.      Different types of graphs for kids/adults

§         Column, double-column, stacked column, percent column (see sample)

§         For ideas on which kids of graphs to use, see the books recommended at the bottom of this page – Steve Moline’s Chapter 6 is a nice starting point. 

§         Also use Excel Help while selecting a graph type by clicking the Question Mark button in the Chart Wizard:

4.      Community and school comparisons

§         Community areas:  names, census tracts, neighborhoods

§         Researching community areas

 

Web sites used in this session:

American FactFinder Census Data:  http://factfinder.census.gov

MapQuest:  http://www.mapquest.com

Chicago Public Schools school data:  http://research.cps.k12.il.us/

·        CPS Schools GIS site

Resources for researching Chicago community areas

·        Chicago Community Area maps with their census tracts

 

Handouts:

 

Community wall maps and aerial photo maps are available from

Chicago City Hall, 121 N. LaSalle

Department of Planning/Maps and Plats, Room 905

(312) 744-4177

 

Recommended books: