Data Literacy: Adjusting for Population

This lesson focuses on adjusting measures by population size. Students evaluate volunteerism data for 2015 to determine which state’s citizens are most likely to volunteer. Through a guided discussion and review of data, students learn how to convert absolute numbers into per capita measures by adjusting for population and why such adjustments are necessary to make valid comparisons among groups. They also discuss credibility of data sources and identify data sources used in the lesson. As an assessment, they use various data series in GeoFRED® to find state-specific data, including per capita measures.

The lesson is part of the Lessons for Teaching Data Literacy series, which was created to help university and secondary school librarians and other faculty members teach students how to reliably identify, interpret, and communicate data.

•  Lesson (pdf)

•  PowerPoint (pptx)