Begin the class by discussing students' prior knowledge of the U.S. Census. You may wish to ask questions such as:
- How often is a national census completed? [Every 10 years.]
- What kind of information is collected on a typical census form? [Names of people living in household, ethnicity, ages, occupations, etc.]
- How does the government use census data? [Representatives in Congress and state legislatures, funding, education, etc.]
Depending upon students' prior knowledge, you may need to guide the discussion by sharing important information about the U.S. Census.
To continue, students will need to access the U.S. Census Data.
Each student will need to follow these steps:
- Select their state from the pull-down menu on the appropriate page.
- Select their county from the pull-down menu from the state's page.
Teacher Note: You may wish to have all students use the data for the county in which their school is located. Alternatively, if students live in different counties, they can use the data for their home county.
Students will then be lead on a tour of this page. They will investigate possible data which can be obtained from this page. The page is set up with 2000 census data for the county and state. Actual amounts are given for some categories, and percents are given for other categories on this page.
Distribute the Exploring Our County activity sheets to students. They should work individually to answer the questions on the activity sheet.
After students have completed the activity sheet, bring them back as a class to lead a whole-class discussion. You may ask students to share their general observations about the data they analyzed. Ask them why some data was in the form of numbers, and other data was displayed as percentages.
