In Chapter 13, "Economic Instability," your text discusses issues that affect GDP: unemployment, inflation, standard of living, etc. However, many times, though a nation may witness an increase in GDP, that supposed economic growth fails to translate in development for the country's citizens.
In class today, please visit the following sites and respond to the given prompts. Turn in a neatly presented, proofread page of ideas at the end of class today (2:30pm, April 27). The following activities are meant to 1) expose you to several key websites which you may find helpful and ought to consider using in your university pursuits and 2) allow you to reflect on complications of using GDP without reflection and understanding as is often done in discussions/essays/newspapers/radio commentary, etc. where economic indicators are cited and used out of their proper context.
1) Use "Google Trends." Conduct two searches (of your choice). Write down what words you searched, where such words are being searched, and whether those searches have increased or decreased in popularity. Then, write a sentence for each search explaining why you think the search has increased/decreased in popularity (look at Google news headlines at right for reference) and what that would tell you about as an investor (what would you invest in?). Here's a video intro to Google Trends:
2) Watch a TED Talk of your choice by clicking here. Write a paragraph reacting to the video. Summarize the video in ONE original sentence, and then write your thought/criticisms/ideas/reflections/suggestions/questions based upon what you saw. Include the name of the presenter, the name of the talk, when/where the talk was given, and the URL for the talk.
3) Experiment using Gapminder by clicking here. Create any two graphs. Then include a writeup for each graph, explaining what you used for an "X" and "Y" axis and why, what you expected to occur, and what surprises you discovered watching your graphs "grow."
You may work alone or with a partner to complete the above. Happy research! :)
