Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Winter 2013

Welcome to our class blog.  Feel free to browse the posts from previous students.  Some posts are tagged by topic (see list at right).  We'll use this site for some assignments early in the term and then to share results and advice at the end of the quarter.

6 comments:

  1. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/10/education/study-shows-college-degrees-value-during-economic-downturn.html?hp

    By: Richard Perez-Pena
    Title: Benefits of College Degree's Value During Economic Recession
    Date Published: January 9, 2013
    The New York Times

    1. The study was done by the Pew Charitable Trusts
    2. It appears that the US Census Bureau sponsored this study.
    3. The Census Bureau probably wouldn't be interested in finding a particular result since their work revolves around finding statistics.
    4. Age, employment, and education are specified within the study. The control group is the group of people without diplomas.
    5/6. Yes, the results are communicated in a clear manner. The bar graphs used are very informative as well as the written article.

    -Chris

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chris,
      Was this an assignment that we were assigned?
      Thanks,
      Mara

      Delete
    2. Yes, we were assigned this on Wednesday. Do you need to have a copy? I could photocopy mine and email it to you.

      Delete
    3. Yes, I do. Thanks Kevin.
      k09mb01@kzoo.edu

      Delete
  2. http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/17/procrastinating-holiday-shoppers-abound/

    By: Ann Carrns
    Title: Procrastinating Holiday Shoppers Abound
    Date: December 17, 2012
    The New York Times

    1. The study was done by GfK Roper OmniTel
    2. The research was sponsored by VISA
    3. Yes VISA definitely would have an interest in finding a particular result from this study, which could very well cause people to go shopping and thus possibly use their VISA card.
    4. The survey was a telephone survey of 1,007 people with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. It was conducted between Dec. 14th and 16th.
    5. Not particularly, because in the article, prior to clicking on a link it simply says nearly 3/4ths of consumers had not yet finished their Christmas shopping instead of giving the actual percentage number. However, if you click on the link you find that the actual number is 73% so in the end it is not very inaccurate
    6. There are no graphs in this article.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Michael Condon

    1/13/13

    United States Projected Food Waste Up To $165.6 Billion Yearly

    Living in the United States Food Waste
    Ira Sager on January 10, 2013
    http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-01-10/living-in-the-united-states-of-food-waste
    Statistic Sources
    http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306919212000693

    The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations conducts research to estimate the total amount of wasted food in Nations every four years. The FOA sponsored this research side by side with the United Nations. This study being conducted by the FAO could be slightly flawed to make nations believe they waste more food than they actually do, so citizens will work to cut back more in the future. One flaw when reading the research that stood out to me was crops that were ruined from natural disasters and insects contributed to the waste, when in reality these natural disasters are a part of life and can not be controlled. To find these statistics the FOA compiled data of 200 of the most common foods in developed countries (sample size). Then recorded the amount of each food (%) that went to waste based on grocery stores, farming, and households (control group). Then translated this data to dollars by the average cost of each item at a local grocery store. The results of this experiment are very clear and the FOA breaks these results down very nicely. Tables show the estimated per capital amount of food lost at the Retail, Consumer, and farmed land in the United States. The data is then taken one step further and shows what types of food is wasted the most. Meat, poultry and fish accounting for 41% as shown in a pie graph, followed by veggies and dairy in the middle teens.

    ReplyDelete