Investigating Children in Poverty

Author(s)

Kathy Rowell, Sinclair Community College

Learning Goals

Skill

After the completion of this module, the learner should be able to:

  • Demonstrate the ability to state a hypothesis.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of both the dependent and independent variable.
  • Demonstrate how to create a cross-tabulation using both frequencies and percentages.
  • Examine and use web resources to explore possible policy implications of data findings in this module.

Substance

  • Explain how each of the following variables is related to child poverty within the United States: Race, Age, Family Type, Family Size, and Immigrant Status
  • Explain what is meant by the term feminization of poverty
  • Demonstrate an effective use of the sociological imagination
Context for Use

Students in this sociology class will evaluate and analyze if age, race, and/or family size affect children in poverty in the United States.

Students will form hypotheses and analyze data to explore the how of age, race, and family size impact children in poverty in the United States.

Teaching Notes and Tips

This activity uses a customized data set made from the 1990 Census and guides students through data manipulation using WebCHIP software found at DataCounts!. To open WebCHIP with the dataset for the activity, please see instructions and links in the exercise documents under teaching materials. For more information on how to use WebCHIP, see the How To section on DataCounts!