Paper 3 - Final Paper DetailsΒΆ

Work for the final paper will be done in groups.

Assignments

Annotated Bibliography (3 sources, individual) 10 points Tue 11/15 8 am
Research (individual) 10 points Tue 11/22 8 am
Create draft 0 - required Tue 11/29 8 am
Final presentations (group pres, ind grade) 10 points Tue 12/6 and Thur 12/8
Create final paper (group, group grade) 30 points Tue 12/13 10 am

Goal

Step 1: Create and present a paper related to an aspect of Big Data. I will be looking for the same types of things in Paper 3 that you did in Papers 1 and 2. There needs to be a research aspect to your paper. Do number crunching, dive into the books, come up with something new and interesting.

Below are some topics that students have successfully completed in prior years while taking this class:

  • Fastest growing U.S. cities. Looking at city population by U.S. census data, and magazine listings they looked at fastest growing large and small cities. The also looked at job growth, economy, and more.

  • Another paper looked at the spread of disease in pandemics. Graphs and data showed how cholera outbreaks changed week to week. The paper also looked at influenza outbreaks.

  • One paper looked at coffee prices and oil prices to see if there was any correlation. It looked at which countries produced coffee and oil. There was a correlation with a few countries, but not with other countries. Mostly it showed that oil prices did not seem to affect coffee prices.

  • “Living the ideal life.” This paper looked at multiple sets of data and found that the ideal Iowa life would be:

    • Go to Grinnell College and major in Biology.
    • After completing your undergraduate studies, the ideal medical school is the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, specializing in being a Family and General Practitioner.
    • The ideal place to live is in Waukee in the neighborhood between NW 142nd Street and Hickman Road, in the zip code 50325.
    • The ideal house for sale in this neighborhood located at 2674 NW 152nd Street, Clive, IA. 50325.
    • Lastly, the ideal car to buy is the 2014 Toyota Prius C.

  • Another paper looked at multiple sets of data to figure out which was the best U.S. state to live in.

  • The last paper looked at the amount of people following football teams in social media, and see if that corresponded to how well the team’s athletes were paid, game attendance, etc.

  • Recruiting new Football by the numbers. What stats to look at, and then went into specific examples showing how to comb through lots of stats to find the best recruits.

  • America’s most popular sport - tracking the changing popularity of sports over time.

  • How to write a hit song. Tracked stats on age of artist, album number, home state, producer, most popular words, number of words, tempo, and more.

  • College football attendance - combed through a lot of records to track attendance over the years at top colleges.

Other topic ideas that people haven’t done yet, but would be good:

  • Presidents by the numbers. Pick a couple recent presidents and show how things changed during their presidency. (Provide a balanced look.)
  • Energy production. Take a look at oil imports, exports, and alternative energy production over the years.
  • Crime in the U.S. Track different crime rates based on location and type of crime.
  • The changing demographics of the U.S. Look at the U.S. Census Bureau and show how the U.S. has changed over time.
  • College Rankings: Create your own method of ranking colleges, using IPEDS and other databases.
  • Where does the U.S. govt money go? Comb through current and historical U.S. budgets and figure out where the money went.
  • Health - Take a look at the county-by-county breakdown in the U.S. on health and show what you find.

Step 2: To begin with, talk about different topic ideas in your group. Then go out and find resources for your paper. Split the labor and have each person work with three or more resources. Each person will annotate their bibliography, with specific emphasis given to how you will work the source into your paper. Find raw data sources as well. I’ll grade each bibliography separately. Three sources is a minimum and probably won’t get you an ‘A.’

Step 3: Split the research. Have everyone do some number crunching, information gathering, and any other research. Each person will turn in their research results separately and be graded separately.

Step 4: Bring it together. Make a cohesive outline. Pull the research and sources into a final paper. Edit it and create a draft copy. Each person reviews the draft and improves it. Then submit and get the Writing Fellow’s feedback. No draft, no grade for the final paper.

Step 5: Create a presentation. Use Presi or some other tool that allows each team member to contribute. Turn it in. All members get the same grade.

Step 6: Each team needs to present at least 10 minutes, and no more than 15 minutes. Grades are given individually, so if you don’t talk, you get a zero.

Step 7: Turn in your final paper. All group members get the same grade.