ASA Annual Meeting 2024 In-Person Workshop – Integrating Data Analysis and Quantitative Reasoning into undergraduate courses with Census data

Workshop Number 30617  at the ASA Annual Meeting in Montreal, QC.

Please register for the ASA Annual Meeting here. 

Increasing exposure to data analysis and quantitative reasoning in sociology courses across the curriculum strengthens student quantitative literacy and an appreciation of scientific inquiry. This workshop will introduce teachers to tools and approaches toward integrating analysis into a broad range of undergraduate courses. It will feature US census based teaching resources – accessible datasets and classroom modules – available with the Social Science Data Analysis Network (www.SSDAN.net) at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research.

Participants will learn about how to use these resources and adopt them in their courses, as well as ways to assess student proficiency. They will also be given information on how to become part of a network of faculty who will share data, classroom exercises and experiences with quantitative reasoning. Downloadable materials will be provided to assist adoption.
Instructors will learn how they can integrate the analysis of U.S. Census and American Community Survey (ACS) data in relevant, user-friendly ways in such courses as Intro Sociology, Social Problems, Stratification, Race Relations, the Family, Sociology of Aging, Population, and more. The workshop will begin with an overview of the SSDAN project and data analysis materials. Brief tutorials on the easy-to-use software tools will follow, with examples drawn from existing U.S. Census and ACS access tools.

Workshop instructors include William Frey, director of SSDAN, and professors from different institutions -Jill Bouma of Berea College, and Esther Wilder of Lehman College, CUNY- who are well versed in integrating data-driven course exercises into a wide range of sociology courses.