I ntroduction

In this class you will perform a 2-part group project that is designed to improve your knowledge of visual displays of data, data synthesis, technical writing, and research methods. This document contains the instructions for the first part of the group project; the instructions for the second part of the group project will be revealed after the first part is submitted. You may work in groups of up to four members. If you have not chosen a group to be a part of by the end of week 1, you will be placed into a group. This part of the group project is due at the end of week 2.

Setting

The Health Department in the state of Nebokakotasota (it's one of those flyover states) has asked you to create a map that highlights the high injury counties in the state. The two files you will need to complete your task are Nebokakotasota.xlsm and Map of Nebokakotasota.pptx. The excel file contains morbidity data for each of the counties. Each row contains the county name, county population, county area, the county code, and the number of occurrences of seven different categories of injury, which you can find defined here. You will use this data to split the counties into "high injury" and "low injury" counties and create a health map of the great state of Nebokakotasota. Finally, you will need to incorporate both of these items into a short paper describing your methods and justifying your metrics.

Instructions

Once you have initialized the spreadsheet (see Technical Instructions--Setup the Data below), you will have your own unique data set to work with. The first task for the group is to determine a specific metric for splitting the counties into two sets; high morbidity counties and low morbidity counties. Use only the data in the spreadsheet, and do not use the variable entitled "county code"--it is simply one of the many parameters used in the data generation process. You are free to use any or all of the other variables in whatever way you see fit, though keep in mind you will need to justify your metric in the paper.

Once you have devised a metric and have split the counties into two categories, use the powerpoint file to create the map (see Technical Instructions--Making and Saving the Map). This map will eventually be published in a newspaper, so it must be done in only one color (that is, you can only have two categories: "high morbidity" and "low moribidity"). Once your map reflects your morbidity metric, export it to an image file (again, see Technical Instructions--Making and Saving the Map).

Now that you have summarized the data, you should write a report summarizing your findings. This should be relatively short (roughly 500 words of text) and should include the following information:

1. A verbal description of the metric used including at least your method of calculation and the high injury/low injury threshold, and so forth. Your verbal description should be explicit enough that an outside observer, using the same data you do, could replicate your work EXACTLY. In the world of statistical/scientific research, the replicability of research is extraordinarily important.
2. A justification of the methodology utilized. You will want to touch on such topics as why your method is appropriate and what precisely (both mathematically and intuitively) your metric measures.

Price: $13.41

Solution: The downloadable solution consists of 9 pages, 441 words and 1 charts.
Deliverable: Word Document