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Exercise Modules by Author
Exercises by Topic
| General and Multi-topic |
Jay Corzine
University of Central Florida | Criminology, Sociology of Violence |
Social Structure, Race/Ethnicity, and Homocide
As discussed, the murder rates for Blacks in the United States are substantially higher than those for
Whites, with Latino murder rates falling in the middle. These differences have existed throughout the 20th and into
the 21st century and, with few exceptions, are found in different sections of the United States. Although biological
and genetic explanations for racial differences in crime rates, including murder, have been discredited and are no
longer accepted by most criminologists, both cultural and structural theories are widespread in the literature on
crime and violence. It is also important to remember that Latino is an ethnic rather than a racial classification.
The point of this exercise is to examine differences in selected structural positions of Blacks, Whites and Latinos in
the United States that may help explain long-standing differences in their murder rates.
Data Sets: /cen1990/fpov9.dat and /cen1990/ppovgeo9.dat
|
Nancy Davis
DePauw University | Sociology 100 |
Education In America
Focusing on education, we will examine the changes from 1950 to 1990 in the numbers, race, gender, and
occupations of high school and college graduates. Turning our attention to cohorts and population structure, we will trace
birth trends over the past four decades, namely the Baby Boom, and discuss possible causes and effects. Next, we will look
at changes in labor force participation rates among men and women and the earning gap that exists between them. Living
arrangements, the next area of interest, will be examined in terms of changes over time in marital status, poverty in
relation to household type, and cohabitation. Finally, we will take a look into the politics of immigration by considering
such factors as the educational attainment, poverty status, standard of living, and occupation of immigrants and comparing
them to those of native-born Americans.
|
Jim Wright
University of Central Florida | Urban Sociology |
The Social Structures of the Cities
Objectives of this first data exercise are: to discover how the present-day US population is distributed across these
various census categories; to discover how the distribution has changed over time; and, to see how some of the social
characteristics of people who live in cities, suburbs and non-metro areas.
Data Sets: /cen1990/popgeo9.dat and /custom/hpovgeo8090.dat
|
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| Population Structure: Cohorts, Ages, and Change |
Kyle Crowder
Western Washington University | Population Problems |
Population Structures and Cohorts
This module provides a gentle introduction to the use of StudentChip software and census data to investigate
basic population issues. In the first part of this module, you will use data from the 1990 U.S. census to create
population pyramids for several racial and ethnic groups. These population pyramids provide the ability to view the age
and sex structure of a population. They not only allow us to view the cumulative impacts of past patterns of fertility,
mortality, and migration, but also provide hints about what a particular population is likely to look like in the future.
In the second part of the module you will continue our exploration of basic U.S. population structures by comparing some
of the basic characteristics of a number of distinct birth cohorts.
Data Sets: /cen1990/popusa9.dat, /centrend/popstruc.dat,
/centrend/emp5090.dat,
and /centrend/edoc5090.dat
|
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| Race and Ethnicity |
Jay Corzine
University of Central Florida | Criminology, Sociology of Violence |
Social Structure, Race/Ethnicity, and Homocide
As discussed, the murder rates for Blacks in the United States are substantially higher than those for
Whites, with Latino murder rates falling in the middle. These differences have existed throughout the 20th and into
the 21st century and, with few exceptions, are found in different sections of the United States. Although biological
and genetic explanations for racial differences in crime rates, including murder, have been discredited and are no
longer accepted by most criminologists, both cultural and structural theories are widespread in the literature on
crime and violence. It is also important to remember that Latino is an ethnic rather than a racial classification.
The point of this exercise is to examine differences in selected structural positions of Blacks, Whites and Latinos in
the United States that may help explain long-standing differences in their murder rates.
Data Sets: /cen1990/fpov9.dat and /cen1990/ppovgeo9.dat
|
Ronald Helms
Western Washington University | Social Organization and Criminal Justice |
A Study of Demographic and Economic-Based
Explanations For Variation In Street Robbery Rates In U.S. Cities
Researchers studying crime suggest that there is substantial variation in the amount of serious crime across
large urban jurisdictions such as central cities. There have been many attempts to account for crime variation. The
following raises questions about how populations may be linked with crime variation. One key component of serious crimes
involves those that are conceptualized as being instrumental crimes. The following exercises focus on one category of
instrumental crimes, street robberies. In this exercise we will attempt to address the following question: Do population
features influence the rate of robbery in the largest U.S. cities? We will also begin to assess economic conditions to
see if these alter the original relationships.
|
Donna Hess
South Dakota State University | Indians of North America |
American Indian Population in South Dakota
The American Indian population in the U.S., S.D., and many other states has shown significant growth in
recent decades. It is also a comparatively young population. In this Bonus Opportunity, you will look at these growth
patterns, compare the size and age distribution of the American Indian population in the U.S., S.D., & several reservation
counties (& your home state/county if you choose). Then you will think about and briefly write a paragraph or two on what
you see as implications of the data that you have examined.
Utilizes CensusScope
|
Jana Jasinski
University of Central Florida | Sociology of Violence |
Fear of Crime
Everyday we have specific routines we engage in. Many of these routines are tailored to preventing us from
becoming victims of crime. We do things like lock our doors, watch where we walk at night, or avoid walking alone. We
take these actions because at some level we are afraid of the possibility of being a victim of crime. Although we may not
consciously think about it, these routines may be influenced by a variety of factors. What factors might make some
individuals more afraid than others?
Utilizes the General Social Survey
|
Jeffrey Leiter
South Dakota State University | Jobs and Work |
Do Blacks Earn Less than Whites and Why?
Data Sets: /cen1990/work9-45.dat
|
Brent Marshall
University of Central Florida | Social Stratification |
Part 1 - Social
Stratification
Part 2 - Race and Ethnic Inequality
The population of the United States is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse. This increasing
diversity is an important issue because it is changing the cultural, political, and economic landscape of
American life. Our schools, workplaces, legislatures, and national character are constantly being shaped
by this growing diversity. Consequently, race/ethnicity issues concern the entire nation, not just the
members of minority groups. You will look at the similarities and discrepancies between different race/ethnic groups in terms
of educational attainment, occupations and earnings. Over time, all race/ethnic groups have experienced increased education
levels, more occupational choices, and higher earnings. However, the rate of these gains varies between race/ethnic groups.
After seeing the gaps between race/ethnic groups, you will consider why these discrepancies exist.
Data Sets:
/cen1990/educimm9.dat, /centrend/educ5090.dat,
/centrend/edoc5090.dat,
/cen1990/lawyers9.dat and /cen1990/earn9.dat
|
Kathy Rowell
Sinclair Community College | Social Problems |
Exploring Race and Ethnicity
Using Census 2000 Data
Utilizes CensusScope and Ameristat.
|
Jay Teachman
Western Washington University | Introduction to Demography |
Race and Changing Household Structure
The textbook for this course discusses cross-cultural variations in household structure, as well as changes
across time in household structure in the United States. The purpose of this exercise is to examine variations in
household structure in the United States according to race and historical period. By the end of the exercise students
should have a better appreciation of the fact that household structure in the U.S. is very fluid and that changes over
time in household structure have not progressed uniformly for all race groups.
Data Sets: /centrend/hh5090.dat
|
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| Immigration and Migration |
Kyle Crowder
Western Washington University | Race and Ethnic Relations |
Immigration In the U.S.
In this module you will explore some of the impacts of this immigration by examining the characteristics of the
foreign-born population, comparing these characteristics to those of the native born population. You will get a chance to
explore where immigrants come from, how the composition of the immigrant population has changed, where immigrants settle, and
what they do once they get here. Most importantly, you will have the opportunity to test some key hypotheses drawn from the
most popular theory used to explain the incorporation of immigrants into the American social and economic
mainstream.
Data Sets: /cen1990/popusa9.dat, /cen1990/immusa9.dat, /cen1990/wkim9-35.dat,
/cen1990/engasn9.dat
and /cen1990/englat9.dat
|
Kyle Crowder
Western Washington University | Introduction to Population Issues |
Residential Mobility and Migration
In this module you will have the opportunity to explore the frequency of different types of residential moves carried out
by Americans. You will examine some of the basic determinants of residential mobility by looking at variations in
different types of mobility by age, marital status, education, and housing tenure. Finally, you will have an opportunity
to test hypotheses, drawn from a popular theoretical perspective, about racial differences in residential
mobility.
Data Sets: /custom/mobed2kc.dat
|
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| Labor Force |
Jere Brunner
Oberlin College | American Inequalities |
Causal Analysis: Effect of Education and Occupation on Earnings
How are earnings determined? Why do some people earn more than others? Does a better job necessarily mean a better
salary? In this module, students will attempt to answer these questions and many others by examining factors such as education
and occupation in terms of the role they play in determining earnings. Students will also look at the earnings of whites and
compare them to the earnings of blacks, Latinos, and Asians. Another consideration will center on the effect of gender.
Finally, students will turn their attention to the age of workers in terms what role it plays in determing earnings. Aside from
earnings, students will also take a brief look at poverty with respect to the effect race-ethnicity and family structure has on
creating and sustaining it.
Data Sets: /centrend/fpov7090.dat, /cen1990/family9.dat
|
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| Marriage, Divorce, Cohabitation, and Childbearing |
Richard Bulcroft
Western Washington University | Households, Marriage |
Cohabitation
This module is designed to illustrate the effects of selection bias on the observed relationship between premarital
cohabitation and later divorce. It also serves as a review of key methodological concepts introduced in the first part of the
course.
Data Sets: /custom/ocedpv9.dat
|
Richard Bulcroft
Western Washington University | Marriage |
Diversity in Family and Household Patterns
This module is designed to illustrate differences in family and household composition patterns for different groups based
on race/ethnicity and social class. It also serves as a review of key methodological concepts introduced in the first part of
the course.
Data Sets: /centrend/hh5090.dat, /cen1990/hholds9.dat and /centrend/fpov7090.dat
|
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| Gender |
Kristin Anderson
Western Washington University | Gender and
Society |
Gender, Marital Status, And Earnings
Berk (1985) proposed that the family is a "gender factory"; that is, families are social institutions in
which ideas about gender are formed, enforced, and reproduced across generations. This exercise examines the
relationships between marital status and earnings among women aged 25 and over, using data from the 1990 U.S. Census.
We will attempt to answer the following question: Does marital status influence earnings among women?
Data Sets: /custom/earnwn9.dat
|
Theodore Fuller
Virginia Tech | Sociology 204 |
Occupational Sex Segregation
Occupational sex segregation will be studied by focusing on traditionally gender-oriented occupations and
analyzing which have an increasing proportion of males or females, and which are still mainly gender-specific jobs. These
analyses will be done by age group to study trends at different stages of people's careers.
|
Jana Jasinski
University of Central Florida | Sociology of Violence |
Fear of Crime
Everyday we have specific routines we engage in. Many of these routines are tailored to preventing us from
becoming victims of crime. We do things like lock our doors, watch where we walk at night, or avoid walking alone. We
take these actions because at some level we are afraid of the possibility of being a victim of crime. Although we may not
consciously think about it, these routines may be influenced by a variety of factors. What factors might make some
individuals more afraid than others?
Utilizes the General Social Survey
|
Kathy Rowell
Sinclair Community College | Social Problems |
Investigating Differences In Earnings Based On
Gender
Data Sets: /cen1990/work9-25.dat
|
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| Households and Family |
Donald Arwood
South Dakota State University | Population Problems |
Women and Household Structure
You most likely learned in your Introduction to Sociology, Social Problems, and Family classes that
traditional mom-pop-children households in the United States are not as dominant as they once were. You may also have
learned that the change was due in part to the increasing status of women and changes in customs and laws that made
divorce less troublesome to obtain. And we all have known for quite some time that children in female-headed households
have a much greater chance of living in poverty. While you do the exercises in this lesson, you will find data that look at
some of these claims. In the next lesson, we will explore some of the demographic "causes" of the increase in the status of
women-declines in both mortality and fertility and an increase in urbanization.
Data Sets: /centrend/fpov7090.dat, /cen1990/family9.dat
|
Richard Bulcroft
Western Washington University | Households, Marriage |
Cohabitation
This module is designed to illustrate the effects of selection bias on the observed relationship between premarital
cohabitation and later divorce. It also serves as a review of key methodological concepts introduced in the first part of the
course.
Data Sets: /custom/ocedpv9.dat
|
Richard Bulcroft
Western Washington University | Marriage |
Diversity in Family and Household Patterns
This module is designed to illustrate differences in family and household composition patterns for different groups based
on race/ethnicity and social class. It also serves as a review of key methodological concepts introduced in the first part of
the course.
Data Sets: /centrend/hh5090.dat, /cen1990/hholds9.dat and /centrend/fpov7090.dat
|
Chris Carlson
Cornell College | Sociology 273 |
Family Change: 1950 to 1990
Students will trace changes in family behavior from 1950 to 1990 and assess their magnitude, considering the
pace and timing of these changes. Marital status, number of children and household type will be examined by both
race/ethnicity and class. Additional team questions will be introduced that focus on marriage and intimate relationships;
fertility and childrearing; divorce; and families and poverty. Students will present answers and supporting data to these
questions via class presentations.
|
Diane Kayongo-Male
South Dakota State University | Social Problems |
U.S. Housing Patterns, Living
Arrangements, and Life Chances
In this assignment you will use U.S. census data to get an overview of housing patterns (ownership and types of housing)
and living arrangements as a way of understanding more about one example of what Weber referred to as life chances (or, basically, the
ability to access to resources we need to live a good life). As well, access to housing is considered one of the main features of the
American Dream. Unfortunately, as the need for low-income housing units has doubled over the last three decades, the number of
low-income housing units nationwide has been cut in half. Minneapolis and other cities have established annual goals for increasing the
stock of affordable housing in response to a severe shortage of low-cost housing..
Data Sets: /cen1990/housng9.dat, /custom/eldlvmr9.dat and /custom/eldrel9.dat
|
Jeffrey Lashbrook
SUNY - Brockport | Social Structure-Personality: What is the relationship between social class and child-rearing values? | Social Psychology |
Social Structure-Personality: What is
the relationship between social class and child-rearing values?
The sociologist, Melvin Kohn, argued that people's locations in social structures, particularly the occupational
structure, influenced the values they would stress for their children because variations in structural locations exposed them to
different experiences. His research, however, was done some time ago. Much has changed in our social world since then. Does the
original relationship still hold?
Utilizests: General
Social Survey
|
Wendy D. Manning
Bowling Green State University | Sociology 313 |
Fertility and Family Planning
Students will gain an understanding of the change in fertility patterns in the U.S. through an examination
of the change of marital status among females, childbearing trends, and how such variables are affected by race/ethnicity.
Women's earnings, their poverty rates, and their number of children will also be studied. Data from Ohio will be compared
to national data.
|
Jay Teachman
Western Washington University | Introduction to Demography |
Race and Changing Household Structure
The textbook for this course discusses cross-cultural variations in household structure, as well as changes
across time in household structure in the United States. The purpose of this exercise is to examine variations in
household structure in the United States according to race and historical period. By the end of the exercise students
should have a better appreciation of the fact that household structure in the U.S. is very fluid and that changes over
time in household structure have not progressed uniformly for all race groups.
Data Sets: /centrend/hh5090.dat
|
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| Income and Poverty |
Kristin Anderson
Western Washington University | Gender and Society |
Gender, Marital Status, And Earnings
Berk (1985) proposed that the family is a "gender factory"; that is, families are social institutions in
which ideas about gender are formed, enforced, and reproduced across generations. This exercise examines the
relationships between marital status and earnings among women aged 25 and over, using data from the 1990 U.S. Census.
We will attempt to answer the following question: Does marital status influence earnings among women?
Data Sets: /custom/earnwn9.dat
|
Donald Arwood
South Dakota State University | Population Problems |
Women and Household Structure
You most likely learned in your Introduction to Sociology, Social Problems, and Family classes that
traditional mom-pop-children households in the United States are not as dominant as they once were. You may also have
learned that the change was due in part to the increasing status of women and changes in customs and laws that made
divorce less troublesome to obtain. And we all have known for quite some time that children in female-headed households
have a much greater chance of living in poverty. While you do the exercises in this lesson, you will find data that look at
some of these claims. In the next lesson, we will explore some of the demographic "causes" of the increase in the status of
women-declines in both mortality and fertility and an increase in urbanization.
Data Sets: /centrend/fpov7090.dat, /cen1990/family9.dat
|
Ronald Helms
Western Washington University | Social Organization and Criminal Justice |
A Study of Demographic and Economic-Based Explanations For Variation In Street Robbery Rates In U.S. Cities
Researchers studying crime suggest that there is substantial variation in the amount of serious crime across
large urban jurisdictions such as central cities. There have been many attempts to account for crime variation. The
following raises questions about how populations may be linked with crime variation. One key component of serious crimes
involves those that are conceptualized as being instrumental crimes. The following exercises focus on one category of
instrumental crimes, street robberies. In this exercise we will attempt to address the following question: Do population
features influence the rate of robbery in the largest U.S. cities? We will also begin to assess economic conditions to
see if these alter the original relationships.
|
Jeffrey Lashbrook
SUNY - Brockport | Social Class, Wealth, & Power |
Current and Historic Patterns
In the Distribution of Income
We've argued that societal stratification is "both a condition and a process" (Kerckhoff, 2000). The former captures
what the distribution of valued resources (e.g., money, education) among other things look like in a society. The question, most
simply, is 'who gets what'? In this exercise, we'll examine contemporary and historical data on financial resources.
Data Sets: /custom/ocedin2k.dat and /custom/ocin5090.dat
|
Jeffrey Lashbrook
SUNY - Brockport | Social Class, Wealth, & Power |
An Analysis of Earnings
While a much larger percentage of American families are located in the top income bracket in 1990 compared to fifty
years ago, there were still slightly over ¼ of American families with income of $25K or less in 1990. Here, we will analyze some
forces contributing to inequality in earnings.
Data Sets: /custom/ocedin2k.dat and /custom/indedin2kc.dat
|
Jeffrey Leiter
South Dakota State University | Jobs and Work |
Do Blacks Earn Less than Whites and Why?
Data Sets: /cen1990/work9-45.dat
|
Joan Spade
SUNY - Brockport | Social Problems |
Poverty in the United States
In addition to a quantitative analysis that involves univariate, bivariate,
and multivariate analysis, this module reinforces research terms introduced in
Intro to Sociology (independent, dependent and control variables and includes
the opportunity to discuss sample vs. population (in the comparison of
national poverty data vs. the poverty rate in the sample) and value vs.
variable (poverty as a value and a variable and the recoding of the values in
the household data). The module also uses the Census website to define the
concept "poverty threshold" and look at trends in poverty. Together this
reinforces basic components of social science research and analysis in
preparation for upper-level classes, including research methods and statistics
Data Sets:
/cen2000/ppovedu2k.dat and
/cen2000/hhpov2k.dat
|
Tim Thornton
SUNY-Brockport | Introduction to Sociology |
Income Inequality In the United States
For this assignment we will explore the impact of gender and race on the earnings of full-time workers in
2000. The purpose of this assignment is to introduce you to some basic data analysis software (StudentCHIP), to develop
some familiarity with working with data from the Current Population Survey, and to apply what you have learned in the
course to try to explain differences in earnings based on race and gender.
Data Sets: /geography/earn2kc/earn2kc.dat and /geography/earn2kc/earn2kc.ny
|
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| Education |
Jere Brunner
Oberlin College | American Inequalities |
Causal Analysis: Effect of Education and Occupation on Earnings
How are earnings determined? Why do some people earn more than others? Does a better job necessarily mean a better
salary? In this module, students will attempt to answer these questions and many others by examining factors such as education
and occupation in terms of the role they play in determining earnings. Students will also look at the earnings of whites and
compare them to the earnings of blacks, Latinos, and Asians. Another consideration will center on the effect of gender.
Finally, students will turn their attention to the age of workers in terms what role it plays in determing earnings. Aside from
earnings, students will also take a brief look at poverty with respect to the effect race-ethnicity and family structure has on
creating and sustaining it.
Data Sets: /centrend/fpov7090.dat and /cen1990/family9.dat
|
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| Miscellaneous |
Jason Ford
University of Central Florida
| Criminology |
Correlates of Desistance
Research has shown that marital status and employment are correlates of desistance. That is, adolescents involved with
crime were more likely to discontinue offending in adulthood if they were married and had a good job. Most of what
criminologists know about the process of desistance from crime is based on a sample of adult males in the 1950's. There is no
question that life in America has changed drastically in the past fifty years. Given the importance of examining historical
change inherent in the life course perspective, it is important to determine how changes in the social structure over time
impact individuals. Therefore, the goals of this data analysis exercise are to examine changes in marriage and employment over
the last fifty years. The purposes are to identify the changes that have taken place, and to hypothesize how these changes may
affect the process of desistance from crime today.
Data Sets: /centrend/edoc5090.dat and /centrend/eldrel9.dat
|
Robert T. Hall
West Virginia State College | Sociology 305 |
Disability: Equality/Inequality
This module examines the disability community and inequality. Students will attempt to determine which is
the best indicator of disability and will form a composite to describe the disability community. Education,
race/ethnicity, employment, and earnings will be compared with the general population to identify whether a disability
discrimination exists. The life chances of people with disabilities will also be examined.
|
Donna Hess
South Dakota State University | Indians of North America |
American Indian Population in South Dakota
The American Indian population in the U.S., S.D., and many other states has shown significant growth in
recent decades. It is also a comparatively young population. In this Bonus Opportunity, you will look at these growth
patterns, compare the size and age distribution of the American Indian population in the U.S., S.D., & several reservation
counties (& your home state/county if you choose). Then you will think about and briefly write a paragraph or two on what
you see as implications of the data that you have examined.
Utilizes CensusScope
|
Jim Wright
University of Central Florida | Urban Sociology |
The Social Structures of the Cities
Objectives of this first data exercise are: to discover how the present-day US population is distributed across these
various census categories; to discover how the distribution has changed over time; and, to see how some of the social
characteristics of people who live in cities, suburbs and non-metro areas.
Data Sets: /cen1990/popgeo9.dat and /custom/hpovgeo8090.dat
|
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