Demography from physical cemeteries, "virtual cemeteries," and census data
Author(s): Janet Lanza
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
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Description
This lab provides a rich and flexible version of widely used demography exercises that have been previously based on data collected from cemeteries. This lab teaches life tables and survivorship curves. Over two lab periods, small student groups develop and answer questions comparing the survival patterns of different groups of humans (e.g., groups that differ in geographic area, time period, gender, socio-economic background, or ethnicity). Data on human demography are available from three sources: (1) tombstones in local cemeteries that provide ages at death, (2) on-line cemetery records, and (3) census records that provide the numbers of people alive in different age classes. Students may also compare survivorship curves on the same groups generated by different data sets.
Cite this work
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
- Lanza, J. (2018). Demography from physical cemeteries, "virtual cemeteries," and census data. Ecological Society of America, QUBES Educational Resources. doi:10.25334/Q40T2C