The President's Vetos
This activity is designed to give you valuable
experience retrieving and manipulating data, creating meaningful graphs,
and analyzing the data in order to answer important and thought-provoking
questions.
Enjoy!
Below are instructions: Follow them carefully
and if you have questions don't hesitate to ask!
Playing with the Numbers:
1) Retrieve the Data
Go
to Presidential
Veto Data
2) Copy and Paste data into Microsoft Excel
3) Format Data in Excel
-delete
columns Coincident Congresses and Vetos Overridden
-expand
columns' width so that all the data fits
-delete row 45
(Total)
-replace
all the slashes (-) with zeros
4) Make a Graph
-Select (highlight)
all of the data
-Go to Insert,
then Chart
-Choose Column
and press Next
-Data Range should
already be selected, press Next
-Enter Chart Title:
Presidential Vetos, Category (X) Axis: President, Category (Y) Axis: Number
of Vetos
-Place chart in
New Sheet and Finish.
5) Save your Graph
-Save the graph
and place it in a Word Document so that it will be available to you when
you answer your questions.
6) Arrange data in Descending Order
-You
will arrange the data in order to view the Presidents in the order of which
ones used vetos the most and which ones used them the least.
-Select (highlight)
the column President
-Go to Data, select
Sort. A "Sort Warning" will come up. Choose "Expand the Selection"
and press Sort.
-Sort by Total
Vetos and check Descending Order and press Okay.
-Save the data
so that you can use it when answering the questions.
Please answer the following questions using your knowledge of the Presidency and the data and graphs you just created. Write up your answers in the same Word document in which you placed your completed graph.
1) List the five Presidents who used the veto the least and the five who used the veto the most. (Hint: Look at the data you just put into descending order!)
2) Looking at the graph, are there any trends over time concerning the use of the veto by the Presidents?
3) What veto do Presidents use more often, the regular veto or the pocket veto? Why?
4) F.D. Roosevelt
used his veto power a lot. Did this practice lead to a change
in the nature of the Presidency itself. If so, how?