URBS 502—Analysis Using Excel

The notes for this session were created by Shannon Villwock, the technical training coordinator for Information & Technology Services at MSU. You can find them on MavDisk in the Public Files for Shannon Villwock in the folder called “Excel 2003” (MavDisk:\Staff\V\Villwock_Shannon_L\My_Public_Files\Excel 2003). The name of the file is “Using Excel in Urban Affairs.” If you don’t have access to MavDisk, you can get a copy of the instructions here.

There were essentially four steps to this exercise:

Select and download data from the Census Website (select at least 3 different categories of interesting data)
Clean up & organize the data in Excel
Use Excel functions to analyze the data (eg, Min, Max, Av)
Graph the data (at least one scatterplot displaying the relationship between two of your variables)

For your assignment, replicate the classroom exercise using your own choice of data (you can use other variables from the census of housing and population, or even other census—like the census of governments). Choose something that is interesting to you, because you might be using these data for other projects during the term. Perform all 4 steps of the exercise on these new data.

Write a memo to me explaining what you did and what you surmise from the data. Attach the spreadsheet and graph(s) to the memo. E-mail the package to me (tony@mnsu.edu)

MSU