Quantitative Data Skills for Undergraduates: A Seminar Series for Social Science Students

Abstract

This recipe is for a series of six 60-minute social science data-focused lessons that provide a broad overview of the social science research life cycle with respect to working with quantitative data. This seminar teaches undergraduate researchers to locate and evaluate quantitative data for a senior honors thesis or other undergraduate research project. It helps fill in the blanks for many undergraduates, who are often taught statistical analysis skills but not the basics of the research and research data management life cycles, including how to find the data that they need to analyze. Teaching these much-needed skills can help fill a void in both undergraduate knowledge and instructional offerings. This recipe can easily be adapted for librarians who would like to teach data literacy concepts, regardless of discipline, through a combination of synchronous and asynchronous methods.