Visualizing Congress
The 114th Congress of the United States convened last week. In honor of the occasion, here are three fun and informative visualizations of data on… Read More »Visualizing Congress
JULIA BAUDER, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, LIBRARY, AND SOCIAL STUDIES AND DATA SERVICES LIBRARIAN, GRINNELL COLLEGE
Why Debunking Questionable Divorce Statistics Could Soon Get Much Harder
“50% of all marriages will end in divorce” is one of those statistics that has become common knowledge in the US, where it is casually thrown around, usually unencumbered by a citation. Why cite your source when everybody knows it to be true? Of course, like many such factoids, its veracity is questionable. But how can we find out how many marriages really end in divorce? And why might this piece of information soon become much harder to estimate?
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See you in the new year!
The DASIL Blog is signing off for now, as Grinnell College faculty, staff, and students are on their winter holiday break. We will return to… Read More »See you in the new year!
Improving Nutrition in Poweshiek County One Food Box at a Time
Today, we are sharing an example of community collaboration, emphasizing a practical application of data to produce real-world solutions to policy issues. Mid-Iowa Community Action (MICA), located in Grinnell, IA, partnered with DASIL to evaluate the quality of its food pantry services and determine ways to promote healthier eating among the families it serves. This partnership allows for the investigation of data, providing the necessary concrete evidence to drive future changes in MICA’s food box policy. Seth hopes that this will inaugurate a shift to more data-driven decision-making at MICA.
Obesity and Type II Diabetes differentially affect the lower-income Americans who are the clients of MICA. This has been largely attributed to financial constraints leaving families with no choice but purchasing the most inexpensive food they can, which is frequently less nutritional. Thus the food pantry is potentially an important potential part of the solution. To learn more about the influence of income on diabetes rates, take a look at this study by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention or explore DASIL’s interactive visualization on factors correlating with diabetes.
Food boxes are distributed monthly to the families MICA serves, providing varying amounts of food based on family size. After a few weeks at MICA, Grinnell Corps Fellow Seth Howard approached his director about conducting a survey to evaluate the need for changes in the food boxes. The goal of the survey was twofold: to assess satisfaction with MICA services, as it had been years since the food services had been adequately evaluated, and to ascertain the demand for healthier foods, different foods, nutritional information, and cooking tips.
Seth surveyed every individual who utilized the food pantry in the month of July using a questionnaire that could be returned anonymously to a submission box. A total of 195 household took the survey, giving a response rate of 78.9% of the 247 households served in that month. Using a 5-point Likert scale (1-Strongly Negative, 2- Somewhat Negative, 3-Neutral, 4- Somewhat Positive, 5- Strongly Positive), survey takers responded to the frequency with which they use common food box items, as well as answering some questions about what they’d like to see in future food boxes.
As the graphic below shows, overall, MICA households using the food pantry wanted to see healthier items despite being generally satisfied with the food boxes (only 6.15% reported strong or slight dissatisfaction). Providing even better, healthier options will increase satisfaction and drastically boost use of food box contents.
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MythBusters: Career Development Style
Political Science majors enter politics. Biology majors become physicians. History majors…wind up teaching history. We’ve heard it all before: The major you declare during your college days has a strong influence on your career options and your marketability in those fields. The data presented in this “Grinnell College Career Paths” visualization help to debunk the “major=career” myth. It also reveals the complexity of the career development process. Especially in a liberal arts setting, where conversations of transferable skills and experiential education abound, students choosing a career should consider both their major and experiences gained outside of the classroom.
Your first glance at these data might be at one of the potential majors you are considering. Let’s say you find your Anthropology classes fascinating. You could read your textbooks all night and find yourself conversing with classmates during lunch about the topics you’ve learned. These are all good signs. However, at some point, you might ask yourself, “What can I do with this major?” According to the data presented here, an Anthropology major can lead you to any number of fields. There is a fairly equal spread of career paths — from public service to information systems — chosen by Grinnellian Anthropology majors. How do you decide which path might be a better fit for you? Similar to how you figured out whether or not you like pancakes. You gave it a try, or, as we formally suggest, you participate in some form of experiential education. You get your feet wet in the world of work via serving, interning, or shadowing. Additionally, you talk to alumni about their career paths. You do all of this with the intention of discerning if this particular path aligns with your strengths, interests, and values, and is something you’d like to pursue long-term. Learning about — and being able to articulate to others — the transferable skills of your Anthropology degree is essential to applying your major to whatever field you choose.