Web Exercises

  1. Using the site: http://www.sca.isr.umich.edu/, discuss how the University of Michigan uses survey research to poll Americans in order to determine levels of consumer confidence and spending trends.
  2. On the Bureau of Justice Statistics site: http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=dcdetail&iid=245, examine the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). What type of data does the agency collect using the sets of questions from the survey, and how might this data be used by policy makers and public officials? by the U.S. Bureau of the Census for historical secondary data. Select a topic of interest in your field of interest, and examine trends over time. What do the data tell you about that topical area?
  3. Explore the American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, available at: http://www.census.gov/acs/www/. Discuss the types of questions that are asked in the survey, and how the government may use the data collected to better understand demographical and community trends.
  4. Using one of the National Health Care Surveys as an example at: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/dhcs.htm, discuss how the questions are worded to measure specific areas of interest to the CDC. How may the data from the surveys be used to study health care trends over time?