Communicating Quantitative Information

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Communicating Quantitative Information

• Introductions
• More women murdered on the job
• Homework
• Sign up on Blackboard, take pre-course survey,
  postings assignment.

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Introductions

• Jeanine Meyer, Ph.D. in Computer Science
• Formerly at IBM, Pace University
• Author Multimedia in the Classroom, Programming
  Games in Visual Basic, Creating Web Database
  Applications using php and asp, Beginning
  Scripting Through Game Creation
• Interests/Hobbies news, politics, programming,
  origami, knitting crocheting, cooking eating,
  travel
• Son college professor (!) at Illinois Institute
  of Technology, daughter works in Carmel office
  of Congressman John Hall plus political work
• You?

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Course

• Teach mathematics/quantitative reasoning in the
  context of topics that often show up in the news.
• Application of concepts. Authentic use.
• Work will include calculations writing
  (including use of graphs and diagrams)
• Many topics/lessons already planned. May change
  depending on what happens in the news and/or your
  responses.

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Theory

• People allow themselves to be stupid or ignorant
  in mathematics (mathematics topics).
• More common in USA than elsewhere.
• Means you don't try
• Don't do it!
• You can master the level of work required in this
  course.and the level that will make you a better
  consumer of news.

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Why Im not
Old photo.
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Course Structure

• Class lecture/discussion
• Come prepared to work
• Outside of class
• Read newspapers (The New York Times plus others)
• Make postings on Blackboard read postings
• MUST MAKE AT LEAST 1 POSTING EACH WEEK!!!
• Homework
• Two major projects
• Present "story", with appropriate charts
  diagrams and prepare 1-page abstract, chart(s),
  sources

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Computer labs

• Spreadsheet and graphing
• Finding information
• Government data
• gapminder.org
• www.fivethirtyeight.com
• Other

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Postings assignment

• Identify news story involving mathematics,
  statistics, maps, money, records, testing,
  surveys, science, etc.
• Include bibliographic citation
• Include link, if on-line
• Find the on-line New York Times link if you read
  it in the regular paper
• You may use other on-line sources
• You may use TV and radio if you capture relevant
  information
• Summarize story in your own words
• Assess writing in article
• Any information missing? Any mis-leading
  conclusions?
• Note you can focus on diagrams or include
  diagrams in your analysis

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Diagrams

• Graphical presentations of quantitative
  information
• Example
• A Map of Olympic Medalshttp//www.nytimes.com/int
  eractive/2008/08/04/sports/olympics/20080804_MEDAL
  COUNT_MAP.html
• What determines position of circles? Color? Size?
• Is the diagram successful?

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Answersquestions

• Positioning of countries is according to
  geography (something viewer is expected to know).
  It is a table laid out by geography.
• Time dimension offered interactively
  (dynamically)
• Missing?
• Provides historic context
• Context in terms of population size is missing
  or up to viewer
• Is it successful?
• My answer pretty good
• it brings out things you may not have noticed
• You spend time with it
• Your answer?

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Postings assignment, cont.

• Do a minimum of 4 original postings spread
  throughout the first 12 weeks of the term.
• Do at least 1 posting each week
• Answer any question I pose in class
• Comment on someone else's posting
• Reply to someone else's comment on your posting
• Describe related article in another source
  (including blog, TV, etc.)
• Writing counts! Proofread posting. Capitalize
  appropriately. Make use of formatting. May even
  use attachments.

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Mathematics is

• Not only numbers
• Also patterns relationships
• For example
• TopicNews event
• Specific article Student's assessment

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Materials

• PowerPoint charts (such as file for this lecture)
  will be posted on-line
• Blackboard Discussion Boards for general
  discussion, for postings, and for Projects I and
  II
• I will send email, sometimes with articles
• I will post sources.
• You, also, will post sources!

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Structure for Class

• Present topic and/or actual news story
• Explain mathematics
• Optionally exercise
• Identify concepts lessons
• Homework
• May be posting
• May be written work for next time
• May be opportunity for extra credit

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More women than men murdered on the job

• (Actual front page news story in The New York
  Times 1993 or 1994. I noted this story on my own,
  but it is/was featured in collection of bad
  stories.)
• People die 'on the job'.
• Of the people who die 'on the job', 93 are men
  and 7 are women.
• Of the men who die 'on the job', 14 are
  murdered.
• Of the women who die 'on the job', 40 are
  murdered.

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Exercise

• Draw a line andmark off 93mark off 14 of the
  93mark off 40 of the 7
• Quick what is the (approximate) percentage of
  murdered men? Murdered women?

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Questions/reflections

• Is the headline accurate?
• Does this tell you how many people die on the
  job?
• Say that 2000 people died that year OTJ,
• how many were men?
• How many were women?
• How many men were murdered?
• How many women were murdered?

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Lessons questions

• Be careful when using percentages of percentages
  to represent comparable values.
• Questions are lessons!
• Out of what? Compared to what? What is the basis
  for the percentage (the denominator for a
  fraction)?
• What are comparable numbers?
• Perhaps 93 versus 7. What is conclusion?
• What is ratio of men workers to all workers?
• What else is killing the men?

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Social Security change

• "We will take only 2 to go into a private
  account."
• 2 of the payroll contribution to Social Security
  or
• 2 of the 7 (2/7 equals 28.57). Since Social
  Security is a 'pay as you go' system (current
  income used to pay current expenses), then this
  transition would require substantial income from
  other sources to pay current retirees.
• Note we may talk about Social Security again.
  There will be an assignment over Thanksgiving on
  retirement.

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Lessons Questions, cont.

• What are the definition of terms?
• 'on the job'
• 'murdered'
• When firemen die fighting a fire, is it murder if
  the fire was arson?
• Were the victims on 9/11 murdered?
• When did the event(s) occur? Is a significant
  one time occurrence effecting the results?
  Presumably, the figures could be different for
  2001 than 1993, though probably not male
  domination of police, firemen, Pentagon, and
  World Trade Center workers).

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AIDS expenses

• "AIDS funding increased more under President
  Reagan than any prior president."
• Question When is it appropriate to 'start the
  clock'? Comparisons at the start (and end) are
  more problematical than in the middle.

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Repeat Questions

• Out of what? Compared to what?
• What is basis / what is denominator?
• Is there missing information? Missing factors?
• What are the definitions?
• When?
• Cause to effect?
• For sets of data, what is the distribution?

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Mnemonic 5 Ds

• Definition
• of the thing being written about, the group
  studied and
• The statistical/mathematical terms
• Denominator out of what
• Distribution most situations involve sets of
  data, with not all at the same value.
• Whats the Difference? Compared to what? This
  versus that? Whats the context? Is this a big
  thing? Who cares? Why is this a story? Is it a
  story?
• Dimension
• Definition aspect, measurable attribute, measure
  of space or extent
• Space has 3 dimensions / is 3-Dimensional
• Especially significant in diagrams

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New Topic Women out-earning Men in NYC

• Look up articles in Gotham Gazette, New York
  Times, elsewhere, appearing in August
• Demographic was people in their 20s
• First person gets to count it as a posting!!!
  Others should post their comment as a reply.
• Note I exchanged emails with Andrew Beveridge,
  the researcher

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Last year Topic Boys in Crisis

• First set of articles say there is a crisis more
  girls than boys are in college.
• Second set situation is more complex
• Demographics
• income boys slightly ahead of girls
• non-traditional student females ahead
• Ethnicity African-American, Latino/a females
  ahead
• Note males still make more money
• What are the questions to ask?
• Great posting topic! Great project topic!
• Relates to next topic

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New Topic Hard Times in Iran

• First sentence of keyhole article in Wednesday
  New York Times
• Rents are soaring, inflation hovers around 17
  percent, and 10 million Iranians live below the
  poverty line.
• Interesting, but.
• What is the total population of Iran
  (denominator)
• What is the definition of poverty line
• Make response to my posting!

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Puzzle

• Yesterday, when the market dropped, John's stock
  portfolio decreased in value by 20. Today, the
  market took a turn for the better. How much will
  John's portfolio need to increase in value to
  bring it back to its original value?

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Puzzle

• In 2004, the population of Purchase College is
  4000. Assume it grows at the rate of 5 each
  year. What will it be in 2006?

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Question

• What are the 5 D's?

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Homework

• Sign up / confirm information on Blackboard
• Start reading The New York Times and other
  newspapers and paying attention to other media
  for possible postings