Chapter 11: Charts, Graphs, Tables, and the Environment: Using Service-Learning to Teach About Social Statistics

Charts, Graphs and Tables (hereafter CGT) is a three-credit one-semester undergraduate class, which covers introduction to sociology and quantitative literacy skills. As a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at Indiana University–Bloomington, I had the opportunity to teach CGT for three semesters (spring 2009 with 68 students, fall 2009 with 20 students, and summer 2010 with 25 students). Although for many students the course’s title sounds like “Boring, Boring, and Boring,” I argue that by using an innovative teaching method—service-learning that engages students in a small-scale research project—it is possible to transform the course into “Fun, Fun, and More Fun” (which is the alternative course title I used in the first day of class) while learning statistics.