Rising Stress in College Students
About a month ago I read an article in The New York Times that discussed how stress levels of college students have reach record high amounts. I was interested in conveying this information because of its relevance to the Mary Washington community. Often students can be heard complaining about 3 tests in one week, or important assignments they are worried about getting an A on. Despite preparation efforts that students put in to their work, sometimes it is not enough because there is simply too much to do. This stress is multifaceted; it comes from part-time jobs, pressure to get top...
Same-Gender Couple Adoption
This project is a visual presentation of data that supports allowing full joint adoption by same-gender couples in more U.S. states. This type of adoption is currently only allowed in 12 states, and it is my belief that it should be allowed in more states in order to help reduce the number of kids waiting to be adopted. Unfortunately, a majority of states do not allow same-gender couples to participate in full joint adoption, either through laws forbidding it or by leaving individual cases up to a judge. The alternative - one parent in the couple adopting the child - is much less...
A Divided Nation
The goal of this infographic was to convey some of the information I've uncovered about Belgium in the course of my research. I was actually really pleased with the result, even though I had to remove much of the information I wanted to add for the sake of space and time. At first I had a hard time figuring out what to use for this project, since I am more familiar with Illustrator than some other vector editors, but I wasn't about to shell out major money for it or spend hours in one of the labs on campus. I ended up creating some of the images in Raven before eventually downloading...
Thyroid Madness? You're Not Alone
I started off wanting to make a fun self-diagnosis map, but then I reread the instructions and realized I had to use numerical data. So I have two thyroid infographics for you.
1. Thyroid problems can be very tricky to treat, even for endocrinologists, so I thought it would be useful to make a map for the struggling, newly diagnosed hypothyroid patient. Start at the top, with the doctor who tells you that your TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) and/or thyroid levels are normal and that you’re crazy for thinking you’re still unwell, don’t panic(!), and proceed on down the map until...
Don't Go Bananas Over Radiation
In light of current events, the topic of radiation and its consequences is in the media spotlight. There is a plethora of information available on the radiation levels we are likely to encounter on a regular basis, as well as sources of radiation that are unlikely to affect the greater population. This data can become a source of fear-mongering among hypochondriacs and plebeians alike, which is why I created this infographic to put this esoteric radiation data into an easily digestible format and hopefully put radiation into perspective. The basis of the analysis of radiation levels...
Obesity In Virginia
The image I have created displays the rapid increase of obesity in the state of Virginia. In the beginning I was not sure how to display the data I collected until I was looking at the shape of the state. At first I wanted the dates and the years to be inside the state but realized it was too confusing and clustered. Next I tried to put all of the information inside the state and only keep the percentages on the outside and not include the dates but the dates were needed to really grasp the significant increase.
As you can see I tried to show the increase in the percentage of...
Camp Stats
The infograph that I created gives statistics on what types of camps are available as well as the activities that they provide. I attempted to make a visual representation of the information by using "tents" to represent camps and colored dots to represent the activities that they might provide. There are two very important things to consider. Firstly, I am terrible at drawing, especially on the computer. Secondly, I am often hopeless at creating charts. I would consider using Prezi a way to manage my computer ineptitude and combine my love of camp and PowerPoint. After figuring out that I...
Turkey Donations
At the end of last semester, 964 UMW students each used 10 meals of their meal plans to donate a turkey to a local food bank. The large pyramid of turkeys shows both the number of turkeys that were donated and the number of meals that were put toward this cause by students. This goes to show that many students do not use up all of their meals for the semester but they are willing to put them toward a good cause, such as the food bank.
UMW Tuition Increase
Looking at the proposed tuition increase for UMW, and comparing it to the increases recently implemented by other random schools around the country.
Athletics Budget Important
This informative data shows the change in budget allocations for athletics in the 2009-2010 year where the budget decreased. Looking at that in comparison to the years before it that had significant increases in the budget each year, this graph begs the question, what's going to happen in the future? Will the budget continue to decrease? Student athletics are very important for the Mary Washington community and the budget must keep increasing or at least stop decreasing so that student athletes can continue to compete at a competitive level.