Write a research brief | Be US Census Bureau’s Chief Analyst (Lesson 5 of 5) | 6-8

Instructions

This activity builds off of, “3a-d: Knowledge Constructor | Statistical Inference | Be US Census Bureau’s Chief Analyst – Part 4 | 6-8”

Materials Needed:

• Scaffolded Document with Steps for putting together a Research Brief or Report
• Pre-assigned and pre-pared google slides for each student (more directions below on when used)
• Scaffolded Document with Steps for Running 2-Sample, 2-Tailed T-Tests with Averages or Proportions
• Previous materials from Parts 1-3 (available to be used)
• Google Drive Account per student and for teacher
• US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey Data for 5 States for Years 2010 and 2019 (cleaned and available here)
• ACS Community Survey Data Codebook (cleaned and available here)
• Each student will each require a computer for this activity
• Students need mini-lesson in how to leave comments on google documents (word processor)

Step 1: “What information do you think the governor wants in the research brief/report?”

• Think-Pair-Share:
  • Have students answer the question: what information do you think the governor wants in the research brief/report?”
• Exemplar Response:
  • Variables used in the analysis
  • why we used those variables
  • what data we used and from what time periods
  • we used a sample from the state’s population
  • what statistically significant differences exist within a state over 2 years
  • the steps and tests we can that led us to determine statistical significance
  • what question we are answering
  • the answer to the question
• Push Thinking:
  • If we could have had access to or collect other data, what other data would be useful for this analysis?

Step 2: Introduce Enduring Question

• Today, we ask ourselves, “How do we compile a research brief for the governor of a US state?”

Step 3: Show Students the Essential Elements of a Research Brief/Report

• Essential Elements are:
  • Introduction and Background
    • what question are we trying to answer?
    • why are we answering this specific question?
  • Methodology
    • what data did we use for this report?
    • why is that data reliable and useful?
    • what variables did we select for analysis?
    • how did we use the data to answer the question?
    • what steps did we take to analyze our data?
  • Data Analysis and Results
    • What were the results of our data analysis (the steps we took to analyze the information)?
  • Conclusion
    • What is our answer to the question?

Step 4: Provide students scaffolded report template to write out their research brief/report

• Provide students a copy of this scaffolded guide to write their research brief
• Have them independently run through and “circulate” through the documents as they share it with you

Step 5: Students take the draft from their scaffolded document and have peer review

• Have students pair up and share their first draft with their peer
• Have peers provide feedback to students
  • Peers provide feedback on each other’s papers by highlighting section of text and commenting in google documents:
    • Was their Introduction and Background clear?
    • Was their methodology section clear and understandable?
    • Does their peer make a clear conclusion and share it?

Step 6: Students submit the document for teacher review (teacher provides feedback)

• Students should have already shared their document link with you, so you will be able to see their progress

Step 7: Student makes the essential edits

• Add comments and suggestions to each students digital brief

Step 8: Students submit final draft

• Teacher downloads each brief from each student

Step 9: Stamp end of Lesson

• At the beginning of our journey of being a Data Analyst for the US Census Bureau, we asked the question, “How do we compile a research brief, or report, for a governor of a US state?”
• In this activity, we actually crafted a research brief and have submitted it to the governor for their review.