NO LATE WORK ACCEPTED Our World In Data: Covid

Overview: For this week's homework, you will look at world wide data on Covid.  You will answer some questions, write a personal response, and come up with 2 discussion questions. Note - you should complete the Writing Discussion Questions Quiz before beginning this assignment.

Goal: In the past, we  have focused on reading articles, but for this week, you will look at data and practice reading and interpreting graphs.  This also is an important college skills that can improve over time. The goal is to learn more about Covid world wide. 

1. Instructions:

Go to the website:Our World in Data Links to an external site.

• Click on "Data Explorer" 
• On the left you will be able to select what country (or countries) you want to explore. 

• Type ''World'' into the search box and then select the whole world (  you will have to unselect whichever other countries had been selected)
• At the top of the graph you will see that it is showing you ''Confirmed Cases''
• At the bottom of the graph, you can select to see the data in a map
• When you look at the map, you will have to click the ''play'' button to show the change over time

2. Questions

• Confirmed Cases- Graph : look at the world data both as a graph and as a map (over time). In 1-2 sentences, What is one observation that is interesting. 
• Confirmed Cases- Map : look at the world data both as a graph and as a map (over time). In 1-2 sentences, What is one observation that is interesting and different from what you noticed in the graph. 
• Confirmed Cases: Free Choice Select at least 5 different countries or regions (you can do something as specific as Sweden vs. US  or general like Europe, Asia, etc). Observe the graph and map and write 2-3 sentences describing any interesting patterns or observations. 
• Excess Mortality (Estimate) Graph This is an estimate of how many deaths there were in excess of the normal amount of deaths (using data from previous years). Look at Excess Mortality (Estmates) as a graph and write 1-2 sentences describing patterns that you notice from the graph. 
• Excess Mortality (Estimate) Map observe as a map and write 1-2 sentences describing patterns that you notice from the map over time. 
• Excess Mortality:Free Choice Select the same 5 countries and regions. Observe the graph and map and write 2-3 sentences describing any interesting patterns or observations. 

3. Personal Response to Both Articles : Write a 150-200 word personal response to this data. You may respond in any way you choose, but your response must be rooted in the content provided in data  itself. Vague disconnected comments like "this was really interesting" or "I learned a lot" will earn no points. Instead, make specific references to what was interesting or what you learned. Some suggestions for your personal response include:

• • • Looking at the graphs, what do you think accounts for the differences over time? The differences between countries/regions? 
    • Does the data raise any questions about the disease?
    • What was new or particularly interesting?
    • What are some lessons that we should learn from this data- as an individual, a country, the world? 

4. Discussion Question: Write one question that could be used in our class discussion of this resource. Your question must be at least 75 words long. If you have not yet done so, complete the Writing Discussion Questions Quiz before writing your question. Bring this to class - we will use it for our discussion and you will turn it in with your name on it!

Pointers:

1. Make sure your questions are aimed at your fellow students. Don't write discussion questions that are for an expert (ie -Why do more elderly people die from Covid than young adults?)

2. To make your questions elicit more discussion, write follow up questions. (ie- What did you think when they first closed the schools? What did your teachers say to you?etc)

3. Ask questions to help make the topic more personal. (ie: Have any of you had Covid and how sick did you get?)