COVID Homework #1

For the last few days of this school year, I decided to have my students analyze some COVID data instead of reviewing for the final they won't have to take. It has been very fun for me to create these assignments, so I'm going to share them here. My source for all visuals is Scott Bond on Facebook who has independently and carefully reported COVID numbers for various locations around the world over the last two months. I greatly appreciate his reports and have checked daily for them since my father-in-law mentioned their existence.

Here is the first of the three assignments. Yeah, that's right; I'm giving y'all homework!

Have you watched the news surrounding COVID-19 as case numbers and hospitalizations have grown and shrunk from day to day? Maybe you've heard the phrase "flattening the curve" and wondered just how flat (or not) that curve has gotten while you've been waiting at home to hang out with your friends.

For me, the data has been a very interesting part of the COVID pandemic. Utah's numbers lately have been perplexing, and I want to hear what you think of them.

Here is a graph created by my personal favorite data source during COVID. Friend of a friend Scott Bond has reported each day on Facebook about the Utah situation and numbers, writing a brief analysis and occasionally sharing graphs of the data he's using. Take a minute and look at his latest Utah graph; consider the axes, the colors of the lines, the key at the top, and anything else you think will help you to read the graph:

The first part of this COVID assignment is to ask 3-5 questions about what you see here. There are no right or wrong questions! Consider what about the graph makes the most or least sense to you, how Scott collects and presents his data, or what the trend lines show. What do you notice? What do you wonder? We'll have a chance to answer some of these next time; try to be sincere and thoughtful.

I got some good responses to this assignment, and I'll share the next assignment in the series soonish. If anyone reading does have legit questions about this graph, I'm happy to answer them when I post that next assignment! Holler in the comments.