COUNT ON US: CONCEPTS AND APPLICATIONS OF DEMOGRAPHY
Part III: Applied Demographics
This section will identify and illustrate a variety of ways that demographic data is used in the business community.
- Social Studies terms and concepts include:
- markets
- market areas
- supply and demand
- Math terms and concepts include:
- set theory
- statistics
- Language Arts terms and concepts include:
- advertising and propaganda techniques
- persuasive writing
- Case Studies in Applied Demography
- Activities:
- Lesson, "Service Centers: Location of Professional Baseball Teams," ARGUS
- Collection and analysis of junk mail
- Design of a hypothetical direct marketing campaign
- Web Sites:
- DMG
- Database Marketing Digest
- Marketing
- How to Use, Compile, Maintain, and Sell Mailing Lists
- Welcome to Direct Marketing World
- Local Uses of Demographic Data
- Activities:
- Guest speaker, Bob Gearing, RI Office of Economic Development, "How Does Rhode Island Market Itself to Prospective Businesses?"
- Investigation of Hypothetical Problem
- Activities:
- The scenario for the marketing problem is that a hypothetical business (perhaps Del's Lemonade or (?) Coffee Milk) wishes to expand by establishing a new branch somewhere in the U.S.
- The scenario will include certain demographic and geographic characteristics which the business feels are necessary for successful expansion.
- Student teams will select a state which they must promote and market to that business in the same way that Rhode Island markets itself to prospective businesses.
- Teams will use the World Wide Web to find data to support the selection of a site in their state for the business.
- They will use sites from the "bookmarks" page in their notebook as well as new sites which they may identify in Web searches.
- The teams will use propaganda and advertising techniques to design a Claris Works slide presentation promoting the selection of a site in their state.
- Their presentation must be based on data found on the World Wide Web.
- Web Sites for project research:
- US Census Home Page
- Statistical Abstract Home Page
- State Census Data Centers (clickable map)
- see Population Resources Sites list below
- Student Presentations
- Activities:
- Student teams representing different states will present their "slide shows" promoting their state to the rest of the cluster in a large group setting. They must be prepared to elaborate verbally upon the graphs, text, and images in their presentation.
- World Wide Web Population Resources Sites:
- University of Michigan Population Studies Center
- Penn State Population Research Institute
- Demography and Population Studies, WWW Virtual Library
- Internet Resources of Interest to Demographers