1. MAINSTREAM USA What does this term mean to you?
No clue? PLEASE take a shot in the dark…
what do you think?

2. On your sticky note, respond to each data statement.
What do you think?
1 in 3 U.S. residents is multicultural.
From 2000 to 2012, 8,893,657—8 percent of voting age population— immigrants became naturalized U.S. citizens.
On your sticky note, respond to each data statement.

3. Do your responses address any of the following topics?
comparison with other numbers
prior historical knowledge
prior geographic knowledge
personal experiences
quotes from other people
suggestions for action

4. The Grand Realization!
We often put numbers in context to make them more meaningful to our own experiences and knowledge.
This is the basis of telling a story using numbers.
It also is how the producers of America by the Numbers made demographic data more interesting and relevant to the viewers.

5. Watch and let your thoughts incubate!

6. Small Group Activity
In 1980, Clarkston’s residents were 97 percent American-born.
In 2010, the town was less than 14 percent white.
Currently, refugees and immigrants own 85 percent of the town’s businesses.
In 1980, 5.6 percent of the town’s residents lived below the poverty line (12.4 percent nationally).
In 2012, 37.6 percent of the town’s residents lived below the poverty line (15 percent nationally).

7. Point of View
With your partner, choose one quote from the video to discuss.
Discuss the character’s relationship with Clarkston and his/her understanding of its present and his/her hopes for its future

8. Let’s Compare our characters’ points of view
Is each viewpoint understandable?
How do these people differ in their responses to Clarkston’s potential opportunity?
What do you predict for Clarkston’s future?

9. Much of the film’s demographic data for Clarkston likely came from the U.S. Census Bureau. In addition to counting the United States’ residents every 10 years, this government agency also gathers data that tell a story about its economy and its people. Data about each community can be found at the bureau’s online American FactFinder,
With your partner, locate data for Clarkston — age, sex, household relationships, housing, race and ethnic groups, language, employment, income and earnings, poverty and population change.
You should be able to answer the following questions after completing your research:
Which data confirm what you saw in “Mainstream, USA”?
What additional data do you find?

10. Think-Pair-Research
You will create an ethnography of the community you live in using the same category researched for Clarkston—age, sex, household relationships, households and housing, race and ethnic groups, language, employment, income and earnings, poverty and population change.
Use the U.S. Census Bureau website to research your community, define terms and narrow search results for the assigned topic. After compiling and studying the findings, record the data to share.

11. Bloggers Anonymous! Bit.do/FactFind1123
Ask students to return to small groups and use American FactFinder to find the same categories of statistics for the year 2000.
After completing this research with your partner, you will complete the BLOG TASK: Smalltown USA
What changes do you discover between 2000 and 2010?
Do they surprise you?
How have these changes been reflected in the community?
Record these statistical changes as part of your ethnography.
Bit.do/FactFind1123