Web Exercises

  1. Using the site: http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/nels88/index.asp, discuss how researchers may go about studying the test scores of elementary school students over a time series, and how this data might be used to uncover relationships between variables.
  2. Review the following site: http://www.npc.umich.edu/news/events/healtheffects_agenda/Morenoff.pdf. Afterward, please discuss how observational studies were used in this case study project to better understand whether policy initiatives have a measureable impact on health. Would you have approached this study the same or differently if you were the researcher?
  3. Find an example of an observational study on the internet. Discuss the sources of data, methodology, and limitations of the study. How would this example help a researcher who is interested in designing a similar study of his/her own? What would he/she take from this study?