Go to Gapminder and play around with the Gapminder World application. Identify a trend that you think is worth exploring or interesting that relates to one of the three countries left in the course (Iran, Nigeria, Mexico). This can be any two variables you think are worth exploring the relationship. They have a lot of data and you can definitely find some interesting correlations. After you have found the variables, briefly explain the relationship you found and why you wanted to look at that relationship.
I chose to explore women's issues mostly because I think that women are not often recognized as a cause for the country's success. I also think that education to women is a growing movement that deserves more support, and exploration. I also really like feminism :) Anyway, so I explored the correlation between primary school completion and 1) children per women and 2) average age of first marriage for women. I found that women that did not adhere to societal obligations (many children, marriage early) were more likely to finish primary school. This wasn't a huge shocker - if you are doing domestic duties instead of studying (something that is probably valued more in multi-generational households) then education isn't a priority. Nonetheless, I really liked finding the relationship, and trying to understand the human factor behind the statistics.
ReplyDeleteI chose a graph that compared the average math achievement test score of an eighth grader to the average income per person of each country, because it is so applicable to us as high school students. Interestingly enough, while the general trend is that as income per person increases, test sores increase, the top five countries are all Asian, despite the fact that the US and Qatar both have higher incomes per person. This reflects a decline in American math departments, whereas in the fifties and sixties, the United States was leading the world in science and math. The question this graph seems to prompt is, what other factor are we neglecting that causes Asian countries to be superior in mathematics? Is it social? A product of their culture? Or the effect of a government's efforts to beat the Western hemisphere? The reason why this graph pertains to us specifically is that there are others possibly more qualified than we are for jobs in the math and science fields- competition could become our biggest enemy.
ReplyDeleteI chose to compare poverty ( % of people making less than $2 a day) to time. Generally the graph shows that over time the % of people in poverty decreases. From 1984 to 2008, the amount of poverty in Mexico decreased by 22.8%. While in Iran poverty decreased by 6% from 1986 to 2005. Iran starting at 14% and Mexico starting at 28%. However, poverty increased in Nigeria by 7% from 1986 to 2010; starting at 77%. I chose to explore this trend because I felt it could be one of many factors which could be used to determine whether or not a country is developed.
ReplyDeleteI choose to examine the relationship between income per person and percent of adults with HIV, looking at all three nations. There was no real change in mexico or Iran, as both nations stayed under 2 percent no matter where their income per person value moved to. The real surprise was in Nigeria. I had expect that as income increased, percent of HIV would decrease, as people would be able to afford better medicines and informative preventive programs. This was the exact opposite of what seems to be happening. In 1979 the percent of HIV in adults was just under 2 percent, as of 2011 it is right around 5 percent, and the average income per person has increased by around $1,000. I just found this strange, as in other nations as wealth went up, the percent of HIV seemed to go down.
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