Service Learning Coursebook in Mathematics

Chapter 10 : Individual Course Projects

 Math 3620:  Regression Analysis

Project I : Historical Time Trends in Industry
 During this project, the students will examine quarterly data provided from the Department of Jobs and Training. This includes units (number of establishments), average employment, and average weekly wage.

Project II : Employment and Unemployment
 Students will examine data from the Department of Jobs and Training concerning Civilian Labor Force, Number of employed persons, number of unemployed persons, and the unemployment rate. This will be for the years 1985 - 1995, broken down by month.

Project III : Social Service Program Trends
 Using data provided from Social Services, students will analyze and summarize Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Food Stamps, and Social Security payments in Stevens County.

Project IV : Demographic Strengths/Weaknesses
 Using data provided from the 1990 Census, students will be given a majority of the census data, and be asked to integrate findings of their choice in previous project results. Data emphasized will be age distributions, minority representations, income levels, and gender. Benjamin Winchester, chairperson of the Demographic Focus Group will speak with the group about demographic traits in Stevens County and comparisons with the state.

Project V : Industrial Environmental Impact
 Ciaran Mannion and Mike Harley of the Minnesota Environment Initiative will be asked to come and speak about the relationships which exist between the environment and business in rural areas. Students will then use data provided to them, gather needed data from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, and summarize their findings in conjunction with Project I.

Coordinator Notes
 This course began late due to the late notification of acceptance of the grants from Campus Compact. Due to this, only projects I, II, and III were completed.

Faculty Notes - Dr. Jon Anderson
 The students in this course were able to use plots and simple statistical models to examine the behavior of Stevens County economic data over time. They were able to see seasonal employment fluctuations in certain industries, as well as evaluating trends in these variables. I believe the students were able to obtain a clearer picture of the Stevens County economy, and able to document aspects of the economic health of this county.

This page was created and maintained by Benjamin S. Winchester. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact me.