Carry out and present directed geographic research

1. Carry out and present directed geographic research Geography 1.5 (AS90206)

2. What is this standard all about? • This achievement standard involves carrying out and presenting directed geographic research, describing the relevance of geographic ideas to the research, and evaluating the research process.

3. Achievement Criteria Achieved • Carry out and present directed geographic research. • Describe the relevance of a geographic idea to the research.

4. Achievement Criteria Merit • Accurately carry out and present directed geographic research. • Describe, in detail, the relevance of a geographic idea to the research. • Evaluate the research process.

5. Achievement Criteria This is what we all want to get !!!!! Excellence • Accurately carry out and present directed geographic research. • Describe, in detail, the relevance of a geographic idea to the research. • Evaluate, in depth, the research process.

6. What does it all mean? Carry out and presentmustinclude: • Collecting data • Recording data • Presenting data • Analysing data • Outlining conclusions from the research.

7. Collectingmayinclude observation, measurement, sketching, taking photos, surveys, questionnaires, interviews, a range of secondary sources and other techniques. • Collection of datamay be done individually or in groups. • Presenting of datamay be done using graphs, maps, tables and diagrams, using appropriate conventions. You will be told what sort of ways to present your data.

8. Describemeans to identify and outline. • In detail means using evidence (examples or case studies) to support your answer. • In depth refers to clarity of argument and holistic understanding.

9. Evaluate means to make judgements about the strengths and weaknesses of the research process. • You need to consider, for example, what were the strengths of your research e.g my sample size was large or weaknesses e.g I only interviewed people the same age as myself.

10. So an example to try… Research: Ice-creams sold on Sunday 27 February, 2009 at Mission Bay • Research was conducted into ice-cream sales (type and volume) at Mission Bay. What would you do to research this? • Who would want to do research into ice-cream sales? • When would you do research? • What are you going to ask people? • Who would you ask? • Why Mission Bay? • How would you record data? • Timeframe? • How many times?

11. After going out to Mission Bay, data was collected in the morning for 1 hour and then in the afternoon for 1 hour. • In each session, data was collected on the flavours and amount of ice creams sold. • The data was tallied and the results were drawn up into a table.

12. Title: ____________________

13. Presenting results TASK 1: • Draw a bar graph to show the AM and PM totals from the table. • This should be accurately plotted and labelled. Consider things like titles, labelling the axes, plotting accurately, a key if appropriate – you MUST be accurate to be eligible for a Merit for this.

14. Tonga Other ways to present the data: Pacific-born people in New Zealand, 1961–2001 You must remember a title Include a key Label the axes, in this case population (y axis) and years (x axis) Samoa Fiji TASK 2: Draw a percentage bar chart of % of flavours bought in the morning and another of the % of flavours bought in the afternoon. You need to include a key, title and so on – be accurate and follow conventions required.

15. Still other ways to present data - Maps this time • Maps are models of reality. They are scaled down versions of the real thing. • Maps show on them a variety of things depending on their purpose. • A topographic map shows cultural and natural features such as roads, schools and also rivers and lakes.

16. What about a precis map? Precis maps (simplified topographical maps) • Are useful tools to show where data was collected and also to show natural or cultural factors that may affect the results of the study. • They show only selected features and are often shown at a different scale from the original.

17. Mapping Rules • All maps have several things in common. For example they are all bird’s eye views of part of the earth’s surface and are drawn to scale. • There are six things every map needs: Remember FACKTS

18. FACKTS • Frame - this shows the border of your map • Arrow - showing the north point • Colour - use appropriate colours • Key - use appropriate symbols • Title - make this specific to what you are showing • Scale - use a linear or a ratio

19. Other types of maps Dot distribution map - what can we tell from this map where the population of the USA lives? These are easy to draw. Each dot might represent one person or perhaps ten people. If you were drawing a map of this type it would need a key that showed how many people each dot represented. More people live on the east coast than in the Central areas of the USA You also would need to remember FACKTS.

20. Grid references… • These are useful to give an accurate location of where things are. • In Geography they are mostly expressed as a six figure number eg 177342. • Read Eastings first, then the Northings. • Use your notes to revise grid references (you’ll need to locate grid references in this assessment)

21. Drawing conclusions • These are what your results show. You need to refer to the data, maps and graphs. They should refer back and MUST include specific detailsuch as statistics and evidence you can see in your maps and graphs. Be as detailed and as clear as you can. Use geographic vocabulary. TASK 3: Write a conclusion about ice creams sold at Mission Bay by referring to the table and graphs you have drawn.

22. Describe, in detail, the relevance of a geographic idea to the research. • Consider the IGIs – pattern, location etc • What you have to do is describe in detail why an IGI (or more than one) is relevant to the research. • To gain Merit or Excellence you must give detail.

23. Ice Cream study… TASK 4: • Consider what IGI’s are relevant to this research, write a paragraph to describe how two IGI’s are relevant to the research.

24. Evaluation • When we evaluate our research we are examining our research process ie our collecting of data, interpretation of it and so on AND the results. • If evaluating we need to consider the strengths and weaknesses of our research.

25. Evaluation • When looking at our strengths we should consider why they were good as well as saying what was good about it. • When looking at our weaknesses we should consider why they were weak as well as saying what was weak about it. For this part it would be useful to say what you could do to improve the part of research that is weak. TASK 5: Evaluate the research for the ice-cream study at Mission Bay.

26. Questions to ask.. • Was your sample of your population bias? • Was your sample representative of your population? • How could you improve your sampling method? Is there another method more appropriate? • Was my sample size large enough to give us a good understanding of the population? • Were there issues with how you collected the data? Was it random? • What were the benefits of presenting my information on a map or graph? (Shows patterns, trends very quickly. Provides a summary) • How accurate are your results? Did you have to make any judgement calls?