Announcements

Recording of webinar on using data in an upper division class now available!

The second in a series of webinars on integrating quantitative data analysis into substantive undergraduate social science courses is available for viewing.

Hosted by ICPSR and the Social Science Data Analysis Network (SSDAN), the webinar featured Dr. Rongjun Sun, professor of sociology at Cleveland State University. Jones discussed his tools for helping students measure world income and health inequality. He described his procedures for having his students sort income data in Excel, and calculate the mean incomes and infant mortality rates of the 20 richest and 20 poorest countries in the world.

A video of the presentation is available here (WMV, 45.8 MB), and the accompanying slides are available here (PPT, 125KB).

2012-03-30

Join us for a Webinar on March 29, 2 pm EDT!


Integrating Quantitative Data Analysis into Substantive Undergraduate Social Science Courses, Part 2 with Dr. Rongjun Sun, Associate Professor of Sociology at Cleveland State University.

 Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/592504730

On Thursday, March 29, 2012, at 2 pm, EDT, ICPSR and SSDAN will host the second webinar in a series aimed at integrating quantitative data analysis into substantive undergraduate social sciences courses. This webinar will feature, Dr. Rongjun Sun, Associate Professor of Sociology at Cleveland State University, who will discuss how he challenges his students in "Globalization," an upper-level elective course, to use Excel and easily accessible data resources to define and describe the wealth and health gap that exists between rich and poor countries today.

Participants will learn how Dr. Sun successfully leads his students through the investigation of topics related to globalization using quantitative data and methods. In addition to promoting a deeper understanding of the content, students taught with these methods improve critical thinking skills and develop a greater appreciation of the social sciences. Viewers will also learn where they can access some of Dr. Sun's teaching materials to adapt for their own use.

Title: Integrating Quantitative Data Analysis into Substantive Undergraduate Social Science Courses, Part 2

Date: Thursday, March 29, 2012

Time: 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT

2012-03-26

Recording of Today's Webinar Available Now!

Webinar on integrating data analysis into undergraduate courses available for viewing

The first in a series of webinars on integrating quantitative data analysis into substantive undergraduate social science courses is available for viewing.

Hosted by ICPSR and the Social Science Data Analysis Network (SSDAN), the webinar featured Dr. Jim Jones, professor emeritus of sociology at Mississippi State University. Jones discussed how he has helped students in his introductory-level courses become familiar with data analysis using U.S. census data and simple analytical tools.

Jones described how he encourages students to tap their sociological imaginations through the investigation of quantitative social data. In addition to promoting a deeper understanding of the content, students taught with these methods improve critical thinking skills and develop a greater appreciation for the social sciences. Webinar viewers will also learn how to access some of Jones' teaching materials to adapt for their own use.

A video of the presentation is available here (WMV, 44.8 MB), and the accompanying slides are available here (PPTX, 145KB).

2012-03-15

Join us for a Webinar on March 15, 2 pm EDT!

Integrating Quantitative Data Analysis into Substantive Undergraduate Social Science Courses with Dr. Jim Jones, Professor of Sociology Emeritus at Mississippi State University
 
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/521304618

On March 15th at 2PM EDT, ICPSR with SSDAN will host the first webinar in a series aimed at integrating quantitative data analysis into substantive undergraduate social science courses. This first webinar features Dr. Jim Jones, Professor of Sociology Emeritus at Mississippi State University, who will discuss how he has introduced students in his introductory courses to data analysis using US census data and simple analytical tools.

Participants will learn how Dr. Jones encourages students to tap their sociological imagination through the investigation of quantitative social data. In addition to promoting a deeper understanding of the content, students taught with these methods improve critical thinking skills and develop a greater appreciation for the social sciences. Viewers will also learn where they can access some of Dr. Jones' relevant teaching materials to adapt for their own use.

2012-03-13

Deadline Alert for ICPSR Summer Undergraduate Internship

The deadline for the ICPSR Summer Undergraduate Internship is Monday, February 13, 2012. For more information or to apply, see http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/content/ICPSR/internship/

2012-02-01

Last call for ICPSR Research Paper Competition entries!

The deadline for the ICPSR Research Paper Competition for undergraduate and graduate students is this coming Tuesday, January 31. For prizes, forms, and details, see http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/content/ICPSR/prize/index.html

2012-01-27

Deadline alert for ICPSR Research Paper Competition

Two weeks from today, January 31, is the last day that entries into the ICPSR Research Paper Competition for undergraduate and graduate students will be accepted. For prizes, forms, and details, see http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/content/ICPSR/prize/index.html

2012-01-17

Student Paper Competition deadline approaching

There's still time! Deadline for ICPSR's student paper competitions is January 31, 2012: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/content/ICPSR/prize/index.html 

2012-01-09

ICPSR's real-world experiences for students featured in webinar

The webinar, conducted Nov. 29, focused on opportunities ICPSR provides to get students involved in social science research. The video is available here (wmv file, 64 MB).  The slides are divided into two sections. Information on ICPSR's Research Paper Competitions (PowerPoint, 584kB) was presented by Sue Hodge, and Abayomi Israel spoke about ICPSR's summer internship program (PowerPoint, 10.6 MB).  Entry deadline for the Research Paper Competitions is January 31, 2012 and the application deadline for the Summer Internship Program is February 13, 2012.

2011-11-29

NYT: Quantitative literacy in demand in job market

A New York Times article published Sunday titled "Ad Companies Face a Widening Talent Gap" outlines the problems employers are having finding job candidates with quantitative skills.
Statistical analysis is one of the skills advertising agencies are having trouble finding, the article said, and employers often search for months to find appropriate candidates.
 
The piece goes on: "The digital talent gap is driven in part by the enormous amount of user data that ad tech companies are collecting for agencies and marketers -- data that is instrumental in directing ads to consumers and analyzing trends. New hires are needed for a variety of tasks, including writing code, creating digital advertisements, Web site development and statistical analysis."

TeachingWithData.org is dedicated to providing teaching and learning materials for faculty to use in their classrooms to support students in developing their quantitative skills.

2011-11-02

Ryan Womack featured IASSIST member

Ryan Womack, Data and Economics Librarian at Rutgers University Libraries and a member of the Outreach Team for TeachingWithData.org has been profiled as a member of the IASSIST Community, http://www.iassistdata.org/community/ryan-womack .

IASSIST, International Association of Social Science Information Services & Teachnology, is an organization of professionals working with information technology and data services to support research and teaching in the social sciences. The organization's main web page is http://www.iassistdata.org/ 

2011-10-19

New Features Available on TwD!

TeachingWithData.org has added several new features. Each resource now has a Facebook "Like" button, comment box, along with a "Share" feature that lets users share the resource through many social media outlets. The user has the option to display their comment on the Facebook wall.

2011-10-03

Bill Frey featured on the Washington Post's "Conversations"

William H. Frey, Co - PI of TeachingWithData.org, answered questions in a live Q&A about his research on the changing demographics in America's cities. Transcript of the Q&A is here: http://live.washingtonpost.com/minorities-become-majorities-in-US-cities.html

2011-09-01

George Alter accepts five-year appointment as ICPSR Director

George Alter, acting director of ICPSR since November 2009, has accepted the position of Director for a five-year term starting in September.

Alter has been in important administrative roles at ICPSR since 2007, when he started as Associate Director of ICPSR and Director of the Collection Development unit.

His appointment as Director marks an important milestone in ICPSR's development, and will help the consortium take advantage of new research and preservation opportunities over the next several years.

"The ICPSR Council, ISR leadership and I have full confidence in George's ability in leading ICPSR during this period," said ISR Director James S. Jackson.

"As we look toward new opportunities and challenges in data management, we're truly excited about the future of ICPSR under the capable leadership of George Alter," said Ann Wolpert, chair of the ICPSR Council.

Along with his position at ICPSR, Alter holds two academic appointments at the University of Michigan -- Professor of History and Research Professor at ISR's Population Studies Center. He is also president of the Social Science History Association in 2011.

Before coming to ICPSR, Alter was a professor in the History Department at Indiana University, where he had held various positions since 1979. He holds a bachelor's degree and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Master's in Applied Economics from U-M.

"I'm thrilled to serve this great organization at such an exciting time. There has never been as much recognition of the important work that we do at ICPSR, and the coming years promise to be challenging and productive," Alter said.

Alter replaces Myron Gutmann, who left ICPSR after 8 years as director to lead the National Science Foundation's Social, Behavioral and Economics Directorate.

2011-08-11

Bill Frey featured on PBS "Tell Me More"

William H. Frey, Co - PI of TeachingWithData.org, was a featured guest on the PBS radio show, "Tell Me More" on Monday, June 27, 2011 where he discussed the findings of his research about the changing demographics of the United States. A recording of it can be heard here:
http://www.npr.org/2011/06/27/137448906/us-will-have-minority-whites-sooner-says-demographer?f=1003&ft=1 .

2011-06-29

ICPSR internship selections announced

We are pleased to announce the 7th season of the ICPSR Summer Internship Program for undergraduates. The Internship is a very popular program and this year we received about 100 applications and will be supporting four interns in the following topical archives: Child Care and Early Education Research Connections (CCEERC), Data Sharing for Demographic Research (DSDR), Resource Center for Minority Data (RCMD), and National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD).

2011-05-16

Eight new Data-Driven Learning Guides available

ICPSR's Online Learning Center is pleased to announce the release of eight new Data-Driven Learning Guides (DDLGs).

Designed by teaching faculty and geared toward building data literacy in undergraduate classrooms, DDLGs are set up as lesson plans and contain a description and examples of the focal concept, the data needed for empirical application using basic statistical techniques, a guide to interpretation, and a summary of the exercise.

2011-05-09

2011 Research Paper Competition winners announced

ICPSR is pleased to announce the winners of our 2011 Research Paper Competitions.

Tommaso Pavone won the first-place award in the Undergraduate Competition with his paper "Do More Parties Make for Happier Voters?" which can be viewed at: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/files/ICPSR/prize/pavone.pdf . Pavone, a student at the University of Michigan, conducted a cross-national analysis of public opinion data from 36 democracies to study whether more political parties correlates to higher voter satisfaction.

The second-place undergraduate winner was Erin McMichael of California State University - Northridge, whose paper is titled "External versus Internal Motivators as Predictors for LGBTQ-Directed Bullying Behavior in Adolescents," which is available here: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/files/ICPSR/prize/mcmichael.pdf .

Sayon Deb of Boston University won first place in the Master's Competition with his paper "The Long Term Effects of Colonial Land Tenure: Micro Evidence from India" which can be accessed here: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/files/ICPSR/prize/deb.pdf . The paper uses household survey data from India to examine the impact of historic land tenure institutions on economic and social outcomes for households today.

Douglas Rice of Pennsylvania State University won second place in the Master's Competition for his paper "The Impact of Supreme Court Activity on the Judicial Agenda: Calling to Action or Settling the Law." The paper is available through ICPSR: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/files/ICPSR/prize/rice.pdf .

The winner of the Resource Center for Minority Data Paper Competition was Whitney Boyer of Washington University in St. Louis for the paper titled "Educational Outcomes for Latino Immigrants in Los Angeles County: The Importance of Gender, Immigrant Generation, and Mother's Educational Level," which is viewable at this url: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/files/ICPSR/prize/Boyer.pdf. The RCMD archive can be accessed here: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/RCMD/ .

The first-place winners received $1,000; the second-place prize is $750. All the papers used data from the ICPSR or RCMD archive.

ICPSR is holding three competitions this year:

•The ICPSR Research Paper Competition, for analyses on any topic using data from the ICPSR General Archive or Thematic Collections.
•The IFSS Research Paper Competition, for analyses on any topic using data from the Integrated Fertility Survey Series.
•The RCMD Research Paper Competition, for analyses on issues relating to minorities in the United States, including immigrants, using data from the Resource Center for Minority Data.

All competitions are open to undergraduate and master's students, and recent graduates. Deadline for submissions is January 31, 2012.

Full details on the 2012 Research Paper Competition can be seen here: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/content/ICPSR/prize/index.html .

2011-04-27

NCAA Student-Athlete Experiences Data Archive Webinar available for viewing

A recording of the webinar presented by archive manager Robbin Gonzalez and research associate Chris Greene is now available (WMV, 82.6 MB) for viewing.

The webinar introduces the NCAA Student-Athlete Experiences Data Archive. It covers the purpose and goals of this NCAA-funded project, the data collections currently available, and how to access them. It also previews upcoming data releases.

The URL for the webinar is http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/files/ICPSR/help/webinars/ncaa.wmv

2011-04-07

ICPSR Summer Program Offers Discount

2011-04-04

Registration open for NCAA archive webinar

Registration is now open for the March 22 webinar titled "Beyond the Brackets: Analyzing Data on NCAA Student Athletes."

The session will introduce users to ICPSR's NCAA Student-Athlete Experiences Data Archive, and present the purpose and goals of this NCAA-funded project.

The focus will be on data collections currently available, and how to access them. A preview of upcoming data releases also will be included.

To register: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/229015219

2011-03-17

Inquiry-based Learning Webinar Now Available

2011-02-25

ICPSR Summer Program courses open for registration!

ICPSR is pleased to announce the 2011 Summer Program in Quantitative Methods of Social Research with workshops and lectures on a wide variety of topics in research design, quantitative reasoning, statistical methods, and data processing.

  • The First Session: June 20, 2011 to July 15, 2011, in Ann Arbor, MI.
  • Second Session: July 18, 2011 to August 12, 2011, in Ann Arbor, MI.
  • Three to Five Day workshops on both statistical and substantive topics will be held on various dates throughout the summer. Most of these shorter workshops will take place in Ann Arbor, but there are several that will be held in other locations: Amherst, MA; Bloomington, IN; Chapel Hill, NC; and Berkeley, CA.
Registration, fee structure, and further information about the ICPSR Summer Program are all available on our web site.

Please feel free to e mail us with any further questions at: sumprog@icpsr.umich.edu

2011-02-22

SSDAN Hosts Webinar for Community College Social Science Faculty

This webinar, "Teaching with Contingency Tables for Community College Faculty," is scheduled for Wednesday, February 23, 2011, from 2:30 to 3:30pm (EST) and features our new and improved DataCounts! site and pedagogical applications of the WebCHIP 3.0 software. If you have ever wondered how to easily teach students how to interpret and manipulate U.S. Census data, then you are welcome to participate!

Led by Katherine Rowell, Director of Center for Teaching & Learning and Professor of Sociology at Sinclair Community College, Dayton, OH, participants will learn the value of teaching with data through contingency tables and the importance of fully integrating use of data analysis in the classroom.

Please register by Tuesday, February 21, 2011, at http://ssdan.net/?q=content/webinar-registration

2011-02-17

Webinar on inquiry-based learning will feature TwD resources

If you’ve hit the point in the semester where your classes have fallen into routines and you’d like to spice things up a bit, this webinar is for you! Inquiry-based learning is becoming an academic buzz-word as instructors continue to find that this technique promotes greater student interest and learning. We will show how to use resources in TeachingWithData.org to bring inquiry into social science courses beyond research methods. (Maybe we’ll even slip in some hints about using it in methods/statistics courses as well!) Resources demonstrated will be easy to use and fit within almost any course structure.

The webinar in scheduled for Wednesday, February 23, 2011, from 1 to 2 pm ET. Registration is open for this webinar, which is free and open to the public.

2011-02-16

Archived Announcements

Looking for an older announcement? Try visiting the Teaching With Data blog.