Discipline: Science and Mathematics Education
Subcategory: Mathematics and Statistics
Session: 3
Mikal Smith - Harris Stowe State University
Co-Author(s): Dr. Vasit Sagon, Scott Hartling, St. Louis University, St. Louis, MO ; Dr. Ann Podleski, Harris Stowe-State University, St.Louis, MO
Census data on the changes in demographics in Missouri from 1980 and 2010 in collaboration with a previous SLU (Saint Louis University) project were examined, compared, and visualized using G.I.S. (Geospatial Information Software) tools. ArcMap is a G.I.S. tool that imports excel style data and display it on maps using geospatial accuracy. ArcMap was the primary software used to compile all data sets. This research project was conducted over a 6-week period and the purpose was to track where most African-American single mothers live while simultaneously mapping high concentrations of vacant housing within Saint Louis city, Saint Louis county, St. Charles county, and Jefferson county. This research is important because most areas with a high concentration of vacant housing units simultaneously have poor academic funding, low overall communal income, and insufficient community resources. The vacant housing, available housing, and African American physical geographical data was translated through ArcMap and provided the base in creating each map that color coded the heavily concentrated areas.
It was hypothesized that the changes in demographics, vacant housing concentrations, and the numbers of African-American single-mother families living in each county correlate to reflect that most of those families are living in high vacancy areas. Data in Saint Louis city and Saint Louis county showed single mother African American families living in areas with a high concentration of vacant housing. This trend was absent when analyzing St. Charles county and Jefferson county. Research findings showed that the hypothesis was supported and could also relate to an absence of resources in both counties. This research will be extended to include single mother families that aren?t African American while using the same variables to notice if high concentrations of other ethnic groups are suffering from an unknown dilemma. That unknown dilemma could be the overall low amount of resources within a neighborhood that has a high concentration of vacant houses but, to prove such many other variables related to resources need to be examined.
Funder Acknowledgement(s): M.S.E.I.P (Minority Science Engineering Improvement Program) by Department of Education
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Ann Podleski, PodleskA@hssu.edu
Role: The contributions to my research project consisted of combining new census data with previously analyzed census data to form my African American Single mother column in ArcMap. I examined the individual counties data to prove my correlation along with constructing the maps to provide a visual image of societal migration.