This project will establish a Macintosh microcomputer laboratory with software for two social science academic departments (the Department of Psychology and Sociology and the Department of History, Political Science, and Geography) at Southern Arkansas University (Magnolia). This laboratory will greatly increase access of students to hands-on techniques of quantitative, scientific analysis in these social science disciplines. Ten microcomputers plus a network computer system server and other appropriate hardware and software, including a statistical package and data sets, will enable students preparing for careers in secondary education and underrepresented groups to become active participants in the latest methodologies of their disciplines. With this laboratory, existing courses in these departments will move from largely secondary study of social science quantitative methods to extended hands-on activity in designing and analyzing research problems, using large, real-life data sets and current, state-of-the-art hardware and software in computer-assisted statistical analysis.
