Maths: Data Handling Coursework

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Data Handling Coursework

This coursework is based on data handling. The information that I’ll be gathering is off an exam board. It contains the information of 1183 students from the key stages 3 and 4. It relates to students from Mayfield Secondary School and contains qualitative and quantitative data. Quantitative data is data produced numerically, for example, IQ, height and weight. Quantitative data is good especially if you want to do statistical comparisons. They are used to measure data and tend to give a better picture than qualitative. This is because we can gather a lot of information and make comparisons. Qualitative data is data produced in words and is more descriptive than quantitative data. It is less useful than quantitative data if we want to do statistical comparisons.

The data from the exam board is secondary data. Secondary data means that it is research which had been collected by somebody else. As this is secondary data, I assume it to be reliable, but I am aware that I have to keep in mind that there may be a few outliers. Outliers are usually assumed to be errors. These kinds of outliers are called rogue data. Other data which can also be seen as an error are sometimes also seen as indicating extra information. These outliers are called valid data. If the result does include a few outliers, it could have effect on my results, making it either less or more reliable.

The pupils I would be concentrating on are the girls and boys of years 7, 9 and 11. The reasons why I have left out the other years is because I feel that by looking at only the three, I would still be able to gain a reliable result. I would be looking at these certain year groups to establish the relationship between height and weight. I feel that the height and weight of boys would rapidly increase during the stages of year 9 and year 11, whereas the height and weight of girls would slow down, particularly between the years 9 and 11. The reason why I think this is because from my own experiences in school, I have noticed that there is not much difference between the girls in Year 9 and the girls in Year 11, particularly when comparing their heights. I have also noticed that boys usually are much taller than girls of the same ages.

The main reason why I think there is the difference in height and weight between the girls and boys is because of the difference in puberty. For example, girls go through puberty much earlier than boys. So, since the times in year 7 and 9 most girls go through puberty, they may have an increase in height and weight. However, when in years 9 and 11, their height and weight may not increase as much. Boys would usually go through puberty at a much later time. During that time, they may have a rapid increase in their height and weight. Another difference between girls and boys is that, girls are more self-conscious than boys. For example, girls would try to look better or would follow diets in order to look good. Boys however wouldn’t be as concerned. This could be a reason why boys are weightier than girls.

Another reason why there could be a difference in height and weight is because of the influence in mass media. Media can influence people into believing what is right and what is wrong or what the latest trends are and what’s not. Celebrities like Kate Moss could be an example of a role model to girls. For example, since models like Kate Moss are thin and can fit into small cloth sizes, they could influence girls into believing that being skinny is important. Messages like this could have an influence to why the weights of girls are low or is not in balance to their height.

Some may argue and say that males were born to be bigger and strong by backing up their argument by explaining the hunter-gatherer effect. Hunter-gathering was very common millions of years ago, where people had to hunt for their food out in the wild. Usually, it was the men who hunted, while women stayed at home. The reason for this is probably because men are physically strong. This shows that men, even millions of years ago, were bigger and stronger than women. This can also show how men are born to be bigger and stronger than women.

So in that sense, my hypotheses are as follows:

  1. Girls in year 7 are generally taller than boys in year 7.
  2. The height and weight of boys will rapidly increase between year 9 and 11.
  3. In year 11, the boys would have a much bigger height and weight compared to the girls.

To test the three hypotheses, I would be looking at the Year groups 7, 9 and 11. I am ignoring the other year groups (Year 8 and Year 10) because I feel I would still be able to get the results I want by looking at just three groups. I also feel that if I was to look at the whole of the population, it would be time consuming.

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I am going to test the three hypotheses by selecting a sample size of 300. I am going to select the 300 pupils randomly using a graphics calculator. The way I can do this is by using the random key on the calculator. The way we can use the random key is by clicking the key “rnd” which is short for random, and then inserting a bracket. In the bracket, we multiply 1 by the maximum number and then I click close bracket. For example, in year 7, there are 282 pupils, so I must click: “Rnd (1x282)”. Every ...

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