Using Data In the Classroom: Teaching Resources & Modules

Provides tips and sources for incorporating data into classroom discussions and assignments.

Library Data Services

Library Data Services caters to researchers interested in working with data, mapping, texts, visualization, and technology. Many of these services are available online. Davis Library Data Services, located on the second floor of Davis Library, offers:

A computing lab with specialized software for GIS and data visualization & analysis.
Walk-in assistance provided by knowledgeable student consultants during set hours.
Consultations with specialists for more in-depth inquiries (by appointment).
Spaces for collaboration and presentation, complete with white boards and external displays.
Technology short courses and programs that promote digital scholarship.

Resources to Incorporate Data in the Classroom

Economics: Econ Lowdown
Developed by staff at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, this tool helps students understand economics concepts using interactive exercises in FRED, its database of economic data. Includes lesson plans, instructional videos, exercises and more.
History, Economics, Science and more: Reacting to the Past: STEM Games*
Elaborate games set in the past in which students are assigned roles informed by important texts and are tasked to debate scientific and/or historical questions using primary source evidence. Instructor materials are password-protected.
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Role-playing games that require students to argue a particular viewpoint given set data and other sources. Students often find the games so engaging that discussion of the resulting debate may best be left to a different class day. This gives them time to fall out of character so their contributions can be more objective and less driven by the heat of the debate.
Political Science, Economics, Sociology and more: Teaching & Learning with ICPSR
Provides teaching materials and tools to introduce or reinforce key concepts and research methods in the social sciences. Materials are often tied to a particular topic or dataset.
Sociology, Education, Psychology and more: Teaching with Data
An online portal where faculty can find resources and ideas to reduce the challenges of bringing real data into post-secondary classrooms. A searchable database links to several types of data and instructor resources.
PolicyMap's Curriculum Resources
Has four major components to help instructors use this database in the classroom:

1. Assignments, papers, and syllabi from colleges and universities around the country that have made use of PolicyMap

2. Sample exercises that professors can give to students, or rewrite to fit the context of their classes

3. Short videos showing how PolicyMap has been used to teach concepts in classes

4. Webinars in which professors have discussed how they’ve taught data and spatial analysis concepts using PolicyMap
Carleton’s Quantitative Inquiry, Reasoning, and Knowledge (QuIRK) Initiative
An innovative project to help institutions of higher education prepare students to evaluate and use quantitative evidence in their future roles as citizens, consumers, professionals, business people, and government leaders.

SAGE Research Methods
In particular, the Datasets section provides curated data for instructional use. Also, the Little Green Books (quantitative) and Little Blue Books (qualitative) are useful for students' reference on various methodological concepts and questions.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.

Other Cross-Disciplinary Resources (mainly in the social sciences)

National Numeracy Network’s Teaching Resources
Provides teaching materials and tools to introduce or reinforce key concepts and research methods in the social sciences.
UK Data Service
Offers teaching resources that provide practical information, exemplars, and tips for using data in the classroom.

Text Mining Tools for the Social Sciences and Humanities

Easy Tool for Statistical Comparisons

The Social Sciences Data Analysis Network makes the DataCounts! WebCHIP tool freely available for any level teacher to use with their students. It is easy to use and hard to break.

WebCHIP
Openly available. Online data analysis tool with U.S. data from 1950 to present.
Available Classroom Modules
Created by faculty for students to analyze data on a wide variety of topics. Searchable by keyword; classified by grade level.
Submit a New Module
Instructors are invited to submit learning modules they develop for use by anyone.
Recorded Introduction to WebCHIP and Social Explorer
Virtual workshop from 04/06/2022, at the Population Association of America annual conference. First half introduces American Community Survey (ACS) data and the WebCHIP tool; second half introduces Social Explorer, a commercial database which is available to UNC affiliates.