SBIR/STTR Phase II: Census Microdata in the Classroom

SBIR第二期项目旨在研究如何在中学和大学数学课程中增加美国和其他国家人口普查微数据的可访问性和利用率。明尼苏达州人口中心的web服务器有一个无缝的、xml驱动的接口，这将使教师和学生能够指定、请求并将这些微数据导入Fathom Dynamic Statistics软件。Fathom软件的增强将增加其处理人口普查微数据的易用性和能力；数学课程材料将为教师提供有效的方法来开始处理这些高度激励的数据——既教授现有内容，又教授数据素养。第一阶段的研究表明，普查微数据与K-12学校收集的关于学生人口统计和表现、课程设置和课堂实践的学校普查微数据之间存在很强的相似性。因此，第二阶段利用这种重叠来生成非常需要的接口，以便轻松访问学校人口普查微数据、生成微数据的调查工具以及用于分析微数据的Fathom扩展。KCP技术公司的普查微数据项目利用了美国学校中正在合并的网络连接，从而共生地适应了学校技术发展的更大模式。该项目提供了一个产品，通过一个易于使用的界面来支持复杂数据的分析，这将有助于数据分析和从数据分析中学习。美国教育非常需要在这个项目下生产的各种软件和课程资源

This SBIR Phase II project proposes to research ways to increase accessibility and utilization of microdata from censuses of the U.S. and other countries in secondary school and college courses in mathematics. A seamless, XML-driven interface to a web server at the Minnesota Population Center will make it possible for teachers and students to specify, request, and import this microdata into Fathom Dynamic Statistics software. Enhancements to Fathom software will increase its already considerable ease and power for working with census microdata; curriculum materials in mathematics will provide teachers with effective ways to begin working with this highly motivating data--both to teach existing content and to teach data literacy. Phase I research suggested strong similarities between census microdata and school census microdata data that is gathered by K-12 schools about student demographics and performance, course offerings, and classroom practice. Accordingly, Phase II leverages this overlap to produce greatly needed interfaces for easily accessing school census microdata, survey tools for producing it, and extensions to Fathom for analyzing it. KCP Technologies' census microdata project exploits the merging web connectivity in American schools, thus symbiotically fitting a larger pattern of evolution of school technologies. The project offers a product that supports analysis of complex data through an easy-to-use interface which will contribute to data anlysis and learning from data analysis. U.S. education is very much in need of the kinds of software and curriculum resources to be produced under this project