Blog Assignments

Unit 1: What is Data and how do we Use it? Jonathan Harris' We Feel Fine Assignment.  What is the collective feeling of the world at this moment.  How do you know?

Unit 2: Doing Research and Problem Formulation Social Explorer Hypothesis Generating Assignment.  Construct a map.  What are some things that stand out.  Why do you think these trends are the way they are?

Unit 3: Research Ethics Milgram Shock Experiments.  Watch YouTube film.  Do the costs of this research outweigh the benefits?

Unit 4: Connecting Theory to Method Politics Professor Assignment.  Pick a theory from this website that might explain the relationship you found in the social explorer assignment.

Unit 5: Creating a Literature Review.  Zotero Assignment. Create a Zotero account and add 10 references you found on your subject.

Unit 6: Designing Research. Read these articles on happiness. Kingwell, M. (2007) Can Happiness be Quantified. Globe and Mail and Vedantam, S. (2008). Financial Hardship and the Happiness Paradox. Washington Post.  What are the strengths and weaknesses of qualitative and quantitative approaches to studying happiness.

Unit 7: Validity and Reliability.  Take a Web Survey Assignment.  Take one of the surveys on this page.  Was the data reliable and valid?

Unit 8: Data Collection  Google Trends Assignment. Type a keyword into Google Trends.

Unit 9: Data Analysis Assignment National Election Study Exercise.  Pick two variables and run the appropriate test.  What relationship did you find.

Unit 10: Data Presentation. Breathing Earth, Oil: A History, Blogs and Polarization, Political Book Buying Habits  Look at each of these methods of presenting data.  What are the strengths and weaknesses of each?  Which is the best method of data presentation?