OmniStat. Getting started with the FactLab! A user guide with examples to get you on your way with Omnistat s FactLab!

Transcription

1 Getting started with the FactLab! A user guide with examples to get you on your way with Omnistat s FactLab! Copyright,

2 The FactLab from Getting started In the following you will find some simple steps go get you going as a FactLab user. First of all you will learn how to start the FactLab and then the layout and functionality will be explained. Included are also some examples that show how you can work with the lab. Here s what you need to do to get started: Point your browser to Click the link "Password login". Log in with your user name and password. Click on "The Global Factlab". When you have logged in you can find a button in the lab labeled "Help in 1 minute". If you click it you will find a series of animations explaining the different functions of the FactLab. It is highly recommended that you start your exploration of the FactLab by watching these animations. Remember that The FactLab does not provide any theories or truths. Just facts. It is up to you to experiment and create your own knowledge and gain new perspec-tives on the truth , myilibrary_examples_v3.pmd. omnistat AB, page (10) - Get to know The FactLab! omnistat, PAGE (10)

3 Fields and buttons in the FactLab Here you will find a description of the most common ways of issuing commands in the FactLab as well as explanations of the various fields of the screen layout. Regions In the upper left corner you will find the box containing the regions of the world. If you want to know more about a specific region just tick the box to the left of the region. Of course you can choose more than one region. The chosen regions will be represented with black text on a white background and the others will have white text with a black background. Country/Province The second box from the left contains the countries of the world. You can make selections here in the same way as you did in the Region box, by ticking each country that you want included in the selection. Selected and unselected countries are represented exactly as in the Region box textwise. The Factbox The third box from the left contains several facts that are visible when you choose a country. If you choose more than one country only the facts that are identical in both countries are shown. Of course you can also tick a value here to display all countries that have this value in common. - Get to know The FactLab! omnistat, PAGE 3 (10)

4 The Map button Click here when you have one country selected to display a map that shows where a country is situated. The Organization box Located below the Map button the Organisation box makes it possible to see which organisations a country belongs to. When several countries have been ticked only the organisations that all countries are members or non-members of are displayed with text. And like in all of the other boxes: If you tick "Yes" for instance for G7, all countries belonging to this organisation will be selected. The Variable box Here you choose the variables you want to work with. You can work with up to three variables simultaneously. The variables are colour coded for easy recognition. Variable 1 is blue and displays blue bars in the graph, variable 2 is red and variable 3 green.you choose a variable by clicking the little arrow that points downwards and then scroll until you find your variable. You can also search for a varibale by clicking the arrow and typing a text string. To select a variable, simply click on it and the variable will show up in a green coloured field.. If you want to select another variable you must first deselect the chosen variable by clicking on it. The Info-button To the left of the Variable fields there are three corresponding Info-buttons marked with an "I", one for each variable and colour coded to match the variable and it s graphic representation in the lower window. By clicking the Info-button after chosing a variable you get a source reference for it along with any footnotes or other comments. Total This field displays the sum total of all the values in current selection of the corresponding variable. If you choose the variable "Population 2002" this field will display the total number of people in the world. Bookmarks By using this function you can access a number of predefined scenarios. <<< This button takes you backwards among the actions you have taken in the FactLab, much like the back button of a browser. - Get to know The FactLab! omnistat, PAGE 4 (10)

5 >>> This button takes you forwards among the actions you have taken in the FactLab, much like the forward button of a browser. Differences This button shows a bar graph view of the chosen data with the highest value for "Variable 1" to the far left and then the values in descending order ending with the lowest value for "Variable 1". Connections This button is used to find connections between two variables, in this case "Variable 1" and "Variable 2". To indicate the prescence or absence of a connection between two variables we use a trend line. A horizontal trend line indicates that there is no connection between the variables whereas a slanting trend line shows that there is a connection. If the line slants downwards, from left to right it indicates a negative connection i. e. if one variable increases the other decreases. On the other hand if the line slants upwards we have a positive connection i.e. if the value of one variable increases, so does the value of the other variable. The strength of the connction is indicated by the angle of the trend line, the closer it gets to a vertical line the stronger the connection. Proportions This button converts any view to a pie chart showing the distribution of the values in variables 1 to 3. The pie chart is based on the number in the "Total-fields" to the right of the variables. Table This button converts any view to table showing the values of the current selection of countries and variables Selection The field Selection shows how many of the countries in the world that are represented in the current selection. If you, for instance, choose to look at the European Union, EU, you will find that the selection is 25 out of a total of 211 countries. New experiment This button resets all selections in the lab. Print/export Klicking this button generates a html-page containing the diagram, a headline and the chosen variables. This document can be printed or saved for use in presentations or documents. List By clicking this button you get access to a list of all the variables that are currently present in the FactLab. - Get to know The FactLab! omnistat, PAGE 5 (10)

6 Help in 1 minute Here you will find small animations that show all the functions in the FactLab. Mean value Below the area where the bar graph is shown you will find color coded fields that display the mean value for each variable. Exporting to Excel Click on the Table button and place the cursor in the table allowing you to select the text you want through clicking and dragging. Right-click and choose "Copy". Paste the values into Excel. - Get to know The FactLab! omnistat, PAGE (10)

7 Examples You want information about Belgium Go to the box labeled "Country/Province" and scroll in the list of countries until you find Belgium. Or click below the headline "Country/Province"and type "bel"to do a text search. Then tick the box next to Belgium and all the basic facts about Belgium will show on the screen. In the right corner you will now see the flag of Belgium and if you click the Map button a map showing Belgium and it s neighbouring countries will open in a new window. In which country is Rabat the capital? Click the small arrow after the headline Capital and a scrollable list of all the capitals in the world is showed. Scroll or search for "rab" by simply typing it from the keyboard. Click on Rabat and you will get all the info about Morocco, the country in which Rabat is the capital. Which countries have Islam as dominating religion? With the info about Morocco on the screen, click on Islam next to the headline Dominating religion making the field green. Deselect Rabat by clicking on it, thus freeing the FactLab of the connection to Morocco. Click any country in the diagram below to take a closer look at that country. Click the Undo button as many times as you have to to get back to the default start view of the FactLab. Which countries are EU candidates? Click the small arrow after the headline EU. In the following list you can choose if you want to see EU members or candidates. Click on Candidates and the selection immediately appears on you screen. You would like to compare world population 1960, 1980 and 2002 Click New experiment and then click the small arrow next to the headline Variable 1. Scroll down to the variable Population 1960 click it. Then click the small arrow next to the headline Variable 2 and scroll down to the variable Population 1980 and click it. Repeat the procedure for Variable 3 and choose Population The diagram now shows all countries and all three population figures. If you would like to make a selection among all the countries just click and drag over the area of the diagram that you wish to take a closer look at and in fractions of a second the result will display. Click Undo to return. Which has the largest land area, USA or the EU? First click the New experiment button. Click the small arrow next to the headline Variable 1. Scroll down to the variable Land Area (sq km)2002 and click it. This produces a diagram of all countries with the largest to the left and the others in descending order. Click beow the headline County/Province and do a text search for USA and select it. Now you can see that USA has an area of sq km. Deselect USA and go back to the diagram. - Get to know The FactLab! omnistat, PAGE (10)

8 There are three "different" Europes: The region Europe, Europe the part of the world and the EU Europe. We can check them all out quickly, beginning with EU Europe. Click the small arrow next to the headline EU and choose Yes. We now have all EU countries selected and their land areas summed up in the field Total. The 15 EU countries have an area of sq km approximately 1/3 of the area of the USA. Now we want to look att Europe, the part of the world. Click Undo and then click the small arrow next to the headline Part of the world and tick Europe. In the field Selection we see that there are 42 countries in this part of the world and it has a land area of sq km, not quite 2/3 of land area of the USA. Finally we want to compare USA with the region Europe. Click Undo and then click the small arrow next to the headline Region and tick EU. In the field Selection we see that there are 45 countries in the region Europe and it has a land area of sq km, approximately 2/3 of land area of the USA. So anyway we look at it, USA is considerably larger than Europe, regardless of "which" Europe we look at. How many percent of the population is older than 65 years? First click the New experiment button. Find the variable Population ages 65 and above (% of total) 2003 through scrolling or searching. Click on it and a diagram is shown wirh the countries with the highest percentage people over 65 to the left. How many doctors are there per 1000 inhabitants? First click the New experiment button. Find the variable Physicians (per 1,000 people) 2001 through scrolling or searching. Click on it and a diagram is shown with the countries with the highest density of doctors to the left. Is there a connection between the variables in the two last examples? First click the New experiment button. Find the variable Population ages 65 and above (% of total) Click the small arrow next to the headline Variable 2and find the variable Physicians (per 1,000 people) 2001again. Now you have a diagram with two variables, represented with blue bars for Variable 1 and red bars for Variable 2. Now click the button Connections and you will find that there is a very strong, positive connection between the variables. Ergo: the countries that have most doctors per 1000 inhabitants also has the most people over Get to know The FactLab! omnistat, PAGE (10)

9 Experimenting in the FactLab Below you will find some scenarios that illustrate how you can use the FactLab to investigate a trail of thought and how you can construct assignments for students, making them use their creativity, knowledge and reasoning ability. Unemployment in Europe The unemployment in Europe varies greatly. But so does the structure of trade and industy. In some countries the majority of the companies belong to the industy sector whereas farming or the service sector could be dominant in other countries. You will investigate if there is a connection between unemployment and the structure of trade and industry by finding out if a country with a large industry or service sector has a lower rate of unemployment than a country where farming is predominant. A. How high is the average unemployment rate in Europe?. B. Select the top three countries in Europe that have most people employed in the industy sector and calculate their average unemployment rate. C. Select the top three countries in Europe that have most people employed in the sevice sector and calculate their average unemployment rate. D. Select the top three countries in Europe that have most people employed in the farming sector and calculate their average unemployment rate. E. Analyse the connections between unemployment and the number of employed people in the industry sector, the service sector and the farming sector and determine which of these three variables that show the strongest connection to unemployment. F. Do you think the result you have arrived at seems logical? Motivate your answer. G. How does a country fight unemployment? Find some methods and discuss their strengths and weaknesses. Working life Some countries have more people employed in the farming sector than in the industry sector and vice versa. You will investigate what working life looks like in a typical EU-country and in an African country. A. How does a typical EU-country look regarding employment in the three sectors: the industry sector, the service sector and the farming sector? B. How does a typical African country look regarding employment in the three sectors: the industry sector, the service sector and the farming sector? C. Why do you think there is a difference between the EU-country and the - Get to know The FactLab! omnistat, PAGE 9 (10)

10 African country? Give at least three possible reasons. Unemployment in the world Which countries in the world have a high rate of unemployment and which do not? You will investigate countries with a high rate of unemployment and with a low rate of unemployment and see if you can find other differences as well. A. Find three countries in the world with a high rate of unemployment. B. Find three countries in the world with a low rate of unemployment. C. Find the latest information on the GNP of these countries. Is there a connection between the GNP and the unemployment rate? D. Do you think the connection is strong enough? Is there a natural explanation to the connection? E. Find the latest information on the inflation of these countries. Is there a connection between: a. Unemployment and inflation? b. GNP and inflation? F. Do you think the connection is strong enough? Is there a natural explanation to the connection? G. Is there a connection between unemployment and the number of people employed in the farming sector? H. Is the level of education of any importance to unemployment? I. What is the structure of the population (i.e. age, sex)? Is this factor of importance? - Get to know The FactLab! omnistat, PAGE 10 (10)