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= This wiki is for use during the Eagles Population Based Project. =

**This wiki contains directions for a project in which we will use our knowledge of scatterplots, lines of best fit, and spreadsheets to analyze data.

You must understand the use of scatterplots and the role of the line of best fit in PREDICTING to complete this assignment. If you need to review these two key concepts, you should review Chapter 4-7 in the book.

I need to know, early, if you are unsure about how to use a spreadsheet, as well.**

Each of you will be provided a page, on this wiki, on which to present your work.

The details follow:

The project will be to collect and analyze data on population centers during three distinct historical periods as follows:

1. Early 1800's Identify 10 population centers and measure how far each is from the nearest river 2. Late 1800's Identify 20 population centers and measure how far each is from the nearest railroad 3. Early 21st century: Identify 20 population centers and identify how far each is from an INTERSTATE highway.

Some things to keep in mind: 1) you will need to choose towns/cities for which you can find both locational and population data

2) If a town is right on either a river, railroad, or Interstate, list its distances as 1 mile.

3) Choose towns with a variety of distances from the transportation "systems." The more spread out the data, the better the scatterplots will perform in predicting.

The data will be placed into an OPEN OFFICE spreadsheet, with three pages. On each page, the data will be in three columns: 1) City 2) Population 3) Miles (from the transportation artery listed above).

Each page must be titled 1) Early 1800s 2) Late 1800s 3) 21st Century.

After the data is collected and sorted a scatter plot will be created, for each of the three historical periods. Distance will be the __independent variable__, population the __dependent variable__. Using the scatter plots, the data will be analyzed.

Your analysis must include: 1) An analysis of the correlation between distance and population. 2) Determine if the correlations you have identified vary by time period? 3) Explain if the correlation is positive or negative? 4) Interpret the data to determine if there are any outliers? 5) If so, what influenced the outlying data? 6) Evalute the data and identify which mode of transportation had the greatest impact on population diversity? 7) Explain the role of technology in spreading the population of North Carolina? 8) Predict what will be the most important technologies in the 21st century? 9) Based on your understanding of important technologies today, how might these influence population growth? 10) Using the three scatter plots, predict the population of a town: a. 30 miles from the nearest river in the early 1800's. b. 50 miles from the nearest railroad in the late 1800's. c. 75 miles from the nearest Interstate in the early 21st century (today).

**You will post to the WIKI a report that will have the following sections:

1. Summary: Two or key thoughts you learned from this project 2. Data: Link to or copy of the spreadsheet 3. Scatterplots: Each scatterplot, titled and labeled correctly, using colors, formats, etc to best explain the data. 4. Analysis: Your analysis of the data, based on the guidlines, above. 5. Final thoughts: What was good, bad, and ugly.

Rubric: **

Possible sources: [] [] [|http://alabamamaps.ua.edu/historicalmaps/us_states/northcarolina/index.htm] [] [] [] [] []