Due November 20. Late submission deadline December 4
Reading:
In this assignment you will create a worksheet showing the number of occurrences of identity theft for the top ten metropolitan areas for 2008 through 2006. Just enter the data and don't worry about the formatting. You will format it in the next assignment.
1. Go to the Federal Trade Commission's Identity Theft data at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/reference-desk/national-data.html . This site provides data about identity theft and fraud on a state by state, year by year and metropolitan area basis.
2. Click the PDF link under the heading FTC Compliant Data, ID Theft Clearinghouse Data January 2008-December 2008. A file should open with the 2008 data. Go to page 17 out of 101 of the PDF file to see the "Largest Metropolitan Areas Ranking for Identity Theft." The page number shows as 16 at the bottom of the page. Make sure you are not looking at the previous page containing fraud data. Print the page or write down the area and state name and number of victims per 100,000 for the top 10 areas (the second column of numbers). You should have data for Brownsville-Harlington, TX through Vallejo-Fairfield, CA.
3. Open a new Excel workbook.
4. Click in cell A1 and enter a descriptive title for the worksheet. The worksheet will show the number of ID Theft Complaints per 100,000 people in the top ten metropolitan areas.
5. Click in cell A2 and enter your name.
6. Starting in cell A4, enter the metropolitan area names down the column. Skip the "Metropolitan Statistical Area" part. Just use the area name and state.
7. Starting in cell B3, enter the following labels, one per cell across the row: 2008 Rank, 2007 Rank, 2006 Rank, 2008, 2007, 2006.
8. Enter the rankings and number of complaints per 100,000 for 2008.
9. Go back to the FTC list of PDF files for each year. Open the PDF file for 2007 and go to page 18 of 92 (page 17 at the bottom of the page). Locate the identity theft data for the same 10 areas. The order is different.
10. Enter the data in the proper columns of your worksheet.
11. Go back to the FTC list of PDF files for each year. Open the PDF file for 2006 and go to page 8 of 13. Locate the identity theft data for the same 10 areas. The order is different.
12. Enter the data in the proper columns of your worksheet.
13. Save this worksheet as Task11. You will work with it again in the next Task using formulas, formatting and charting techniques.
Upload to Tasks, Tests and Surveys.
Answer the following questions in the answer box in Etudes or save as a Word document and upload.
1. (2 points) Look at the data in the worksheet you created for Part 1 and determine the overall trend in identity theft from 2006 to 2008. What is happening in all of the metropolitan areas?
2. (6 points) Use www.bing.com to search for an article that discusses this trend.
a. What is the title of the article?
b. What is the URL?
c. Describe the factors the author believes is causing this trend.
3. Read "Dropouts: A real problem for U.S." What is the conclusion?
4. (6 points) This article doesn't present an explanation of WHY dropout rates are high. Search the Internet to find an article describing causes for the high dropout rate. For each, provide the following:
a. What is the title of the article?
b. What is the URL?
c. Describe the factors the author believes is causing this trend.