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Quantitative Evidence Learning Historical Research. Learning to Do Historical Research Sources. Quantitative Evidence. Learning to Link Qualities to Quantities. Jacquelyn Gill. Abigail Popp. Introduction. As you go through the research experience, you collect an arsenal of information from a range of sources in order to build an argument. Often, the more information you collect, the more you think you need during the course of your research, you may find yourself asking questions like Did Chicagos demand for lumber increase or decrease after the Great Fire of 1. Exactly how dry were the Dust Bowl years in Nebraska compared to the climate of 1. Is there a correlation between the number of Mc. Donalds food chains over time and the amount of beef consumed by the average American These questions can all be answered with quantitative data taken from a variety of sources. Quantitative data are collected in order to answer questions of how much of a particular thing exists i. How many cows does Old Mc. Donald have. Often, researchers are interested in how these totals change through time does Old Mc. Donald have more or less cows than last year or across geographic space does he have more cows in the upper or lower pasture, and what breed are they. In contrast, the term qualitative data is used to describe information based on the qualities or properties of something, which may be less precise or more subjective than quantitative data. Why is it not enough to say that the popularity of fast food chains increased American consumption of beef Why cant you simply say that the Dust Bowl was dryreally, really dryOf course you can, but you probably wont want to, and this page will show you why. Table of Contents. Why You May Need Quantitative Data. Telling a story about the one that got away may be more exciting the less precisely you recall what actually happened, but academic arguments arent fish tales. Your research question may require concrete evidence to either back up a claim or to strengthen a particular point. Gmail is email thats intuitive, efficient, and useful. GB of storage, less spam, and mobile access. You may find yourself needing quantitative data to Make a stronger case or illustrate a point effectively and precisely. Provide information when qualitative sources may be incomplete or lacking. Augment or help interpret qualitative accounts. Make a Stronger Case or Illustrate a Point Effectively. Because terms like a lot or many or strongly can be relative, backing up your claims with actual data not only gives your reader a clearer understanding of just how many a lot actually is, but its just plain good scholarship. A Confined Animal Feeding Operation CAFO, or feedlot, in Texas. Wikipedia Creative Commons. In Down to Earth, Ted Steinberg discusses the influence of fast food chain Mc. Donalds on the American consumption of beef which he argues has important implications for the nations natural resource consumption and American relationships with nature. Here, Steinberg employs a series of facts taken from quantitative sources to impress upon the reader just how many a lot of hamburgers is In 1. Mc. Donalds became the largest meal serving organization in the nation. Mcdonalds E Learning Program' title='Mcdonalds E Learning Program' />In 1. United States peakedMc. Donalds was selling more than six million hamburgers a day. By the late 1. 99. American consumer headed for its Golden Arches. The orgy of hamburger eating has helped make Mc. Update 05102013 We have released a new 2013 update. Check out Largest Fast Food Chains in the U. S. 2013. Donalds the worlds largest beef buyer, relying on the slaughter of three million cattle each year in the United States alone. Steinbergs argument depends heavily on his use of dataeach sentence contains a reference that traces back to quantitative research or data collection. An orgy of hamburger eating is a dramatic metaphor and one which readers are more likely to accept given the supporting evidence of large scale consumption. Provide Information When Qualitative Accounts are Incomplete or Lacking. Fifteen thousand years ago, northwestern Wisconsin was buried under an ice sheet hundreds of feet thick. To the south, mammoths grazed the tundra amongst stunted spruce trees. As the glaciers retreated, they left behind boulders, gravel, and kettle lakes. The climate warmed, and boreal forests gave way to jack pines and oaks. By this point, the mammoths were long extinct, and Indians hunted deer and beaver on the sand plain. Six thousand years ago, sand dunes initially deposited during the last glaciation actively migrated during the warmer, dryer conditions during the Little Ice Age, white pines moved in when conditions were cooler and wetter. On the Wisconsin sand plain today, the white pines are dying back, giving way to the oaks and jack pines that grew a thousand years before. Artists rendering of woolly mammoths during the last Ice Age. Courtesy of the Public Library of Science, Creative Commons License Paleoindians didnt take ecological surveys, and early settlers didnt have weather stations. So how do we know what conditions were like in northern Wisconsin over the last fifteen thousand years Paleoenvironmental, modeled, and historical ecological data can be particularly useful to help understand the climate, fire, or ecological history of a region when no other accounts of land use, climate, or vegetation are available. What we know about northwestern Wisconsins ecological past comes from quantitative data taken from a range of sources. For example, Public Land Survey System data from the mid 1. Midwest and Western states just prior to widespread European settlement. Paleoecological data from fossil pollen and charcoal preserved in lake sediments collected by Sara Hotchkiss and colleagues suggest that in northwestern Wisconsin, the white pine forests reported by the PLS surveyors was not typical of the last 1,2. Hotchkiss and colleagues used paleoenvironmental and historical ecology methods to better understand forests on the Wisconsin sand plain during a period of time for which there was no ecological data being collected. Augment or Help Interpret Qualitative Data. American Bison skulls. Courtesy of the Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library. In The Ecological Indian, Shepard Krech notes that when looking for contemporary accounts of buffalo herd populations Estimates of the numbers range widely. Nivea 25 Reasons. Flabbergasted by what they witnessed, some observers were awed into wild, unconfirmable and clearly wrong figures from one billion to ten billion buffaloes in a herd or one hundred million animals in a 2. But Over the last century, estimates have been lowerin the thirty to one hundred million range for the total population in AD 1. Ernest Thompson Seton, the naturalist, was the first to estimate population on the basis of what was called range allowance or carrying capacity. Using different estimates he suggested that in 1. Krech cites first hand accounts for the contemporary, qualitative estimates, and scientific estimates by non contemporary experts to contrast with historical estimates by untrained observers. The historical accounts may have been inaccurate for a variety of reasonslack of ecological training, the desire to hyperbolize to make a better story, or settlers may even have exaggerated unintentionally because they were amazed by what they saw on the Plains. While neither the qualitative nor quantitative accounts are true per se, each estimate offers a different kind of information about buffalo populations and the scale of the impact of Native American hunting practices. Return to Top of Page. Mc. Donalds to Start Posting Calorie Counts. Mc. Donalds, which has 1. Panera Bread, which is much smaller with more than 1,5. Mc. Donalds decided to act before the federal requirement takes effect, even though the industry at large has resisted listing calories on menus. They are such a huge restaurant and there are so many people that eat their food, so this is a really positive step, said Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. It will help their customers get more familiar with calorie counts and make decisions about what they eat based on them, and it will probably improve Mc. Donalds menu over time. Other signs indicate that major restaurant chains are working to improve the nutritional quality and reduce the caloric content of their food ahead of the health care laws menu requirements. Just last week, for instance, Dunkin Donuts and IHOP announced that they were adding Quaker Oats oatmeal to their menus. New York City and Philadelphia already require chain restaurants to post calorie counts, but so far, research seems to show minimal impact on consumer behavior. A Stanford University study found a 6 percent reduction in the number of calories purchased by consumers buying food in Starbucks stores in New York City after the company began posting calorie counts in April 2. But for customers who averaged more than 2. Ms. Fields said that although posting calorie counts did not seem to make a marked difference in customer behavior, consumers liked having the information. Ms. Wootan said that calorie counters might start to become a bigger factor as consumers gain more familiarity with them. People may start ordering small fries, say, instead of large ones, or a regular hamburger instead of a quarter pounder, she said. This is all still very new. Not everyone applauded Mc. Donalds announcement. Sara Deon, who works on campaigns to reduce junk food marketing and build food sustainability at Corporate Accountability International, a watchdog group, said it had more to do with public relations than with improving public health, particularly as it related to childrens consumption of Mc. Donalds food. Offering a healthier option in the Happy Meal doesnt put an end to the marketing thats directed at children, Ms. Deon said. The healthier options over all are little more than a vehicle for selling more of Mc. Donalds bread and butter burgers, fries and soda. Continue reading the main story.