problem solving – data analysis (quantitative communication)

 

Scenario: You are submitting an application to a professional conference on data-driven decision making. The application has two parts:

1. Providing information to the conference organizers.
2. Creating a presentation for the conference audience.

Steps to complete: In Week 9, complete and submit your assignment in Blackboard using the following steps:

STEP 1: Visit one of the following newspapers’ websites: USA Today, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, or Washington Post. Select an article that uses statistical data related to a current event, your major, your current field, or your future career goal. The chosen article must have been published after the start of this term.

Examples may include:

• Elections/exit polls
• Award shows (Oscars/Emmys/Grammys)
• Sports
• Economy/job market
• Gender equality
• Human rights issues

The article should use one or more of the following categories of descriptive statistics:

• Measures of Frequency – Counting Rules, Percent, Frequency, Frequency Distributions
• Measures of Central Tendency – Mean, Median, Mode
• Measures of Dispersion or Variation – Range, Variance, Standard Deviation
• Measures of Position – Percentile, Quartiles

Note: Once you navigate to a publication’s website, it may be easiest to do a search with a statistics-related word (ex: standard deviation).

The publications listed are suggestions. If you find an article from another source OR if you are uncertain the article contains all of the information necessary to complete the assignment, please let your instructor know. Your instructor can help you determine whether it is a good fit for this assignment. If you need additional help locating an article, contact a Strayer librarian for more assistance. Remember to review the examples in the Week 6 Discussion.

STEP 2: Using the data from your article, use the template included in this assignment to answer the following questions asked by the conference organizers. Remember to consider their expertise as mathematical professionals and use appropriate language to communicate your findings:

• Highlight the purpose of the article and the problem it is trying to solve. Think summary, in bullet-form.
• Explain how the article uses descriptive statistics to communicate information found in the study and/or any conclusions/solutions.
• Explain how the article applies to the real world, your major, your current job, or your future career goal.
• Recommend solutions using the mathematical and visual data provided.

STEP 3: An additional part of the application process requires you to create a presentation based on the information provided in the template.

• Based on your topic, choose an audience (outside of the field of mathematics) that could benefit from the information you will present. For example, this could be your local city council member, staff or administrators of a school, or employees at a company.
• Analyze the data in the article to determine the best visual (graph or chart) to tell the story to your audience.
• In PowerPoint or other presentation tool, create one visualization of the data appropriate for the conference audience. NOTE: If the article already contains a visual, you must create a different type of graph or chart.
• Identify the audience and explain how the audience can benefit from the data.
• Recommend your identified solutions using language appropriate for the audience.

STEP 4: In the notes section of your final slide, answer the following questions:

• Explain why you chose the audience in Part B.
• Describe how the visuals used in the PowerPoint are appropriate for the audience.

STEP 5: Format your presentation according to the Strayer Writing Standards. For assistance and information, please refer to the Strayer Writing Standards link in the left-hand menu of your course. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.

STEP 6: Submit your assignment in two parts:

• The Week 9 Assignment Template
• Your presentation