Lesson 15: Americans’ Time on Task

Lesson 15: Americans’ Time on Task

Objective

Introduction to Time Use Campaign. You will explore multimedia graphics that incorporate data from the American Time Use Survey to spark your interest about how you spend their time. You will begin to learn how to evaluate reports that make claims based on data by reading The Washington Post article Teens Are Spending More Time Consuming Social Media, On Mobile Devices.

Vocabulary

evaluate, claim

Essential Concepts

Lesson 15 Essential Concepts

Learning to examine other analyses is an important part of statistical thinking.

Lesson

1. Click on Campaign Guidelines - Time Use (the link can also be found on the left side of this page) and take a look at the guidelines - particularly the big questions - to get familiar with the next campaign.

2. What are some predictions you might make based on the big questions in the Time Use campaign guidelines?

3. In this lesson you will be exploring time use through an interactive graphic based on data from The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which collects data about Americans’ and time use through an interactive graph.

4. Go to the multimedia graphic at the following URL:
   

   Counting the hours
   How people like you spend their time
   Most common use of time by age and sex
   A day in the life of americans

5. Spend some time exploring the interactive graphic. Try clicking on the activities represented by different colors, and on the boxes to filter by group (Everyone, men, women, etc.), then answer the following questions:

   1. What variables are represented in this graphic?

   2. Explain what the graphic is telling you.

   3. Where did the data come from?

   4. What are some interesting findings?

6. Check your understanding of the above questions. Here are some possible responses:

   1. The variables represented are activities that Americans spend their time doing. These include sleeping, eating, traveling, socializing, etc.
   2. Some examples might be: The graphic shows how much time Americans over the age of 15 are spending doing these activities. This information is broken down by different categories of Americans (e.g., gender, ethnicity), and the percentage of Americans doing a particular activity at a particular time (e.g., 5% of Americans are working at 6:00 am). The average time spent on a particular activity is also shown (e.g., average time spent at work for all Americans is 3 hours and 25 minutes).
   3. The data came from thousands of Americans over the age of 15 who took a survey recalling every minute of a day in 2008.

7. You will continue to investigate Americans’ daily time use and use the KLW graphic organizer as a way to organize your thoughts. Before you read the The Washington Post article, Teens Are Spending More Time Consuming Social Media, on Mobile Devices, write what you already know about the topic in the Know column.

   Note: If this is your first time using a KLW organizer, the K column is where you write what you already KNOW about a topic, the L column is where you write anything new that you LEARNED after reading/investigating about how teens spend their time, and the W column is where you write what you still WANT TO LEARN (or wonderings that you might have) about how teens spend their time.

   Click on the document name to download a fillable copy of the KLW Graphic Organizer.

8. Now read the article:
   https://www.washingtonpost.com/postlive/teens-are-spending-moretime-consuming-media-on-mobile-devices/2013/03/12/309bb242-8689-11e2-98a3-b3db6b9ac586_story.html

9. As you read, complete the Learn column of the KLW graphic organizer with anything new that you learned from the article about how teens spend their time.

10. After you have finished reading the article, complete the Want to Learn column.

11. When reading a newspaper, magazine, or blog that includes statistical analysis, it is important to evaluate, or think carefully, about claims that these articles state as fact.

12. Now that you have identified what you Know, Learned, and Want to Learn about this article, evaluate the article based on the questions below:

    1. Who was observed and what were the variables observed?

    2. What statistical questions might this article be asking?

    3. Who collected the data?

    4. How was the data collected?

    5. What claim(s) did the article make?

    6. What are some statistics that the article used to make the claim(s)?

13. Check your understanding of the above questions. Here are some possible responses:

    1. A group of 8 to 18-year-olds were observed, and the variables observed had to do with consuming media - watching TV, listening to music, surfing the Internet, playing video games, and spending time on mobile devices.
    2. A possible statistical question is "How much time per day does today's typical 8 to 18-year-old spend consuming media?"; but you may have to share your statistical questions with your teacher/classmates.
    3. There were 3 sources cited. The Kaiser Family Foundation collected data for a 2010 study, the Pew Internet and American Life Project collected data in a 2011 study, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics collected data in 2011 with the American Time Use Survey.
    4. Two were studies whose data collection method is not stated, and one is a survey.
    5. Main claim: "Today's teens spend more than 7.5 hours a day consuming media."
    6. Some examples are "Teens use their cellphones to send an average of 60 texts a day", or "On average, high school students spend less than one hour per weekday on sports, exercise, and recreation."

14. Just as you explored time use via the New York Times interactive graphic, you will now be observing and recording your own daily time use. You will be using the Time Use Data Collection Worksheet to organize your time use data before submitting it to the Time Use campaign. You will complete one worksheet for each day (5 days total).

    So that you can remember your overall daily time use more easily, each daily worksheet is split into 3 sections:

    1. 6am-3pm (should total 540 minutes)
    2. 3pm-9pm (should total 360 minutes)
    3. 9pm-6am (should total 540 minutes)

    Once you've filled in the times for each activity, the form will autocalculate the total time across activities for each section of the day, as well as a final total for the entire day (bottom right), which should add to 1,440 minutes. Each day you will transfer your data from the Time Use Data Collection Worksheet to the campaign.

    Watch this video to learn how to fill out the Time Use Data Collection Worksheet.

    Click on the document name to download the folder containing fillable copies of the Time Use Data Collection Worksheet, Days 1-5.

15. Now you will begin to collect data about your own time use by engaging in the Time Use Participatory Sensing campaign. Follow the Time Use Campaign Guidelines.

    Reminder: Once logged into the app or the browser-based version, go to Campaigns to see the full list of campaigns. You can then choose/add the campaign you want (in this case, the Time Use campaign). If no campaigns are visible, click the Refresh option.

Reflection

What are the essential learnings you are taking away from this lesson?

Homework & Next Day

For the next 5 days, you will collect data using the Time Use campaign on your smart device or via web browser. You will also complete LAB 1F: A Diamond in the Rough.

Complete Lab 1F prior to Lesson 16.