Investigation 10: Human development trends (assigned Wed Feb 17, due Tues Feb 23)

You may work with one other person on this assignment, handing in one report with both names. Word-processed reports are much preferred to hand-written ones. Please copy/paste relevant gapminder output into a Word file as appropriate.

a) Peruse some of the variables that are available with the software at http://www.gapminder.org/. (To see which variables are available, click on the pull-down menus next to the variables names on the x- and y-axes.) Choose two variables that you will investigate, and state a research question that you will explore. (For two examples to generate your thinking, some research questions might be: “Has internet use expanded more rapidly in Europe than in Africa?” or “Has internet use grown more quickly since the 1990s than phone use?”)

b) Describe the association between your two variables as of now (the most recent year available). Be sure to also describe tendencies with regard to geographic region.

c) Describe the association between the variables as of a while ago (a year of your choosing at least a few decades ago). Again be sure to also describe tendencies with regard to geographic region.

d) Describe how each variable, and the association between them, have changed over the years

e) Focus on the United States and two other countries of interest, describing what makes them interesting and how they have changed over the years. At least one of those countries should be chosen because of something interesting that you observe in the data; the other country may be chosen simply because you find the country itself interesting for some reason.

[Note: You should submit screen captures of the software output to illustrate your points (most recent year, earlier year, trails for 3 countries). To do so, when you have the image on screen, press the “print screen” button on your keyboard (may read PrtScn or PrntScrn or such). This places the image on your computer’s clipboard. If you then toggle to Word and select paste (Edit > Paste or ctrl-V), this should copy the image. If you right click on the image and select Format Picture, then under the Picture tab you can crop some unnecessary parts of the image from the top, bottom and/or sides.]