Assignment 12

The purpose of this assignment is to give you experience searching two different online resources for statistical information. You will be using both visible and invisible Web resources. The deliverables you will be producing to turn in through the drop box include (1) a word processing document containing your answers to part one and (2) an Excel workbook containing the two graphs for part two. If you are unfamiliar with Excel, you may wish to begin by viewing this online introduction to the program or one of the following online tutorials:

• Excel 2007 Tutorial
• Excel 2007 Training Tutorials
• Excel 2000 Tutorial
• Tutorialbox.com Excel 2000 Tutorial
• Overview of Microsoft Excel
  

Part One

Create part one of this assignment using a word processing program.

1. Search for information about average income levels in Monterey County using the search engine of your choice. Which search engine did you use? What terms did you use to conduct your search? What were the results?
2. Go to the U.S. Census Bureau web page . Under People and Households, click the link for State Median Income. What was California rate for a family of 4? How does this compare with the rate for Mississippi?

Part Two

You will find and download statistical data from the RAND California database. Exported data will be imported into Excel and used to generate a graph.

Start by going to the RAND California site, http://ca.rand.org/ (if accessing from off campus, log on using this information: Logon ID: a1642 Password: hartnell) and clicking the link for Databases. Choose Business and Economics, then under the Other category, select Personal Income. Within the Personal Income category box, choose Personal Income. Under States, choose U.S. and California. Under format, choose tab delimited. Under time period, choose 2001 - 2005. You will be prompted to save or open the annual.cgi file produced. Save this file to your desktop.

Specific details are provided within the RAND and Excel tutorials, both accessible from the links provided below. This portion of the assignment must be completed using Microsoft Excel.  Copies are available on the media center computers at the Hartnell Library. This week's drop-in tutorial lab will include a demonstration of how to access and download information from the RAND California database, how to use the import wizard in Excel to format your downloaded data, and how to use the Excel chart wizard to create a chart. The following online tutorials were designed to assist you in selecting and exporting data from RAND and then importing it into Excel. You will need to view and/or print them out prior to attempting this part of your assignment.

• RAND Tutorial (Step by step guide to locating, selecting, and downloading data)
• Generating Charts and Graphs with Excel Tutorial (Step by step guide to importing date into Excel and creating graphic charts using the chart wizard as well as instructions for adding a trend line and text box)

Save and name both your word processing and Excel files, then submit them using the online drop box. Please contact your instructor immediately if you need assistance.

Grading Rubric