Collaborative Research - Creating and Disseminating Tools to Teach with Demographic Data Maps and Materials

该项目结合了被称为“社会资源管理器”的网络应用程序工具的多功能性，该工具用于创建可视化地图，定量说明各种社会模式和人口变化，并为在本科社会科学课程教学中使用该工具提供基于研究的教学支持。“社会探索者”以易于理解的格式提供人口信息，其中包括：交互式专题数据地图;在更大范围内提供某个地区数据的报告;以及直观显示不同地理区域（从整个国家到个别人口普查区）和不同时间复杂数据模式的简单工具。从1790年到现在，美国各县的大量数据可用，从1910年到现在，每十年的人口普查区都有大量数据可用。通过创建一个动态的在线课程模块档案，其中体现了使用地理信息系统进行教学的经过验证的教学方法，该项目正在通过促进关键社会科学概念和数据分析技能的教学和学习来加强“社会探索者”的影响，这些概念和技能对于了解人口分布和人口变化至关重要。该项目还在为教员编写辅助材料。它正在使用Web 2.0方法：（1）开发和支持教师用户社区;（2）提供可适应的模块，作为城市研究、社会学、政治学和其他本科课程中“社会探索者”的有效教学范例;以及（3）使用课堂研究来提供策略，以支持教师将这些示例应用于自己的教学，以及材料的“开箱即用”。“社会探索者”在2008年制作了近300万张地图，目前被越来越多的学院和大学使用。

This project combines the versatility of the web application tool known as "Social Explorer," which is used to create visual maps illustrating quantitatively various social patterns and demographic change, with research-based instructional supports for using this tool in teaching undergraduate social science classes. "Social Explorer" provides demographic information in an easily understood format consisting of: interactive thematic data maps; reports that present data for an area in a larger context; and simple tools to visualize complex data patterns across geographies (from the entire nation to individual census tracts) and across time. Extensive data are available for US counties from 1790 to the present, and for census tracts for each decade from 1910 to the present. Through the creation of a dynamic online archive of curriculum modules that embody proven instructional approaches for teaching with GIS, this project is enhancing the impact of "Social Explorer" by facilitating the teaching and learning of key social science concepts and data analysis skills essential for understanding population distributions and demographic change. This project is also developing support materials for instructors. It is using Web 2.0 approaches to: (1) develop and support a community of instructor users; (2) provide adaptable modules as examples of effective teaching with "Social Explorer" in Urban Studies, Sociology, Political Science, and other undergraduate courses; and (3) use classroom studies to inform strategies for supporting instructors' adaptations of these examples to their own teaching, as well as "out of the box" use of materials. "Social Explorer" produced nearly 3 million maps in 2008, and is currently used at a growing number of colleges and universities.