This talk will begin with an introduction to information-based mathematics activities – problems that require students to seek out, evaluate, and make use of information outside of the classroom – and a theoretical argument that these activities play a crucial role in empowering individuals to critique the quantitative claims that they will encounter in their everyday lives. After presenting an example of an information-based activity that helped secondary school students explore inequities related to college access, we will take a closer look at several of the numeracy issues that arose during the students' investigations and the accompanying methodological implications for further numeracy research.