2002 WSMC HIGH SCHOOL MATHEMATICS CONTEST PROJECT QUESTION
How are rural and urban counties in Washington State different from and like one another?
In order to address this Project Question, please use the data available
from the U.S. Census Bureau's State and County Quick Facts Web site (http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/).
Click on Washington State. You may also use the data sets provided through
the "Browse more data sets " link on the Quick Facts Web pages.
Your first job is to devise a set of criteria to decide whether a county in Washington State should be classified as "urban" or "rural." For example, you might decide to use a combination of population density and percent of income derived from agriculture to make this decision. Use the criteria you select to classify each county in our state as "urban" or "rural." Then use appropriate mathematics to address the following question:
How are rural and urban counties in Washington State different from and like one another in terms of
(Note: You will find information on these categories through the Census Bureau's Web site.)
For each category, determine 3 10 variables you will use to give an operational definition of the category. For example, for "Social characteristics" you might decide to describe demographic variables such as percent minority, population density, age distribution, level of educational attainment, etc.
Once you have come up with your operational definition for each category, use these to describe differences and similarities between rural and urban counties in Washington. In the end, we want you to use mathematics and mathematical analysis to answer the question:
How are rural and urban counties in Washington State different from and like one another?
© 2001, 2002 WSMC and Richard T. Edgerton
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