This is a collaborative project with the University of Michigan Population Studies Center (Award 0088715). This collaborative project is working with individual faculty and whole departments in order to introduce scientific reasoning systematically into the undergraduate curriculum. The project is pursuing the goal of improved scientific literacy among undergraduate students in the social sciences by providing teachers and whole departments with tools and expertise to integrate data analysis and analytic rigor more widely throughout the curriculum. This collaboration is building upon two already successful approaches that complement each other. The Social Science Data Analysis Network (www.SSDAN.net ) project at the University of Michigan has worked with a nationwide network of faculty to co-produce engaging, wide-ranging curricular materials with US Census Bureau data. SSDAN encourages and facilitates individual faculty to integrate specially tailored, data analysis modules into substantive social science courses at all levels. The American Sociological Association's (ASA's) Minority Opportunities through Structural Transformation (MOST) Program has worked with entire departments to alter their curriculum in ways that ensure structural change toward improved research training of minorities and all students. This project is introducing SSDAN approaches as department-wide interventions in a critical mass of courses in the curriculum of 16 sociology departments. A core goal is to transform the curriculum and thus give students a more sequenced and pervasive exposure to scientific reasoning and data analytic skills. Workshops, follow-up visits, interactions with the Michigan and ASA staffs along with departmental websites are being utilized to support the full implementation and evaluation of this intervention. The project is also significantly revising and updating the SSDAN website and data analysis module creation features used by faculty across the social and behavioral sciences. New datasets from the US 2000 Census, historical censuses, CPS (Current Population Survey), and GSS (General Social Survey) are being added, and additional formats for analysis by SPSS, SAS, STATA, GIS packages, and new interactive data analysis features are also being provided. The project is working on a "Guide" that instructs chairs and deans how to implement departmental interventions across different types of departments and diverse disciplines. In addition, a published workbook updating earlier SSDAN publications and an expanded bank of downloadable datasets, course modules, and networking capabilities via the website is being produced.
