Finding Research

1. Do a Web search for information on a social science subject you are interestedin. How much of the information you find relies on statistics as a tool for understanding the subject? How do statistics allow researchers to test their ideas about the subject and generate new ideas? Write your findings in a brief report, referring to the Web sites that you relied on.

2. The U.S. Bureau of the Census provides many graphs and numeric tables about current economic conditions. Review some of these presentations at http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/briefroom/BriefRm. Which displays are most effective in conveying information? Summarize what you can learn from this site about economic conditions in just one of the "briefing rooms."