GeoActive 272

Online
HOW TO USE STATISTICS IN GCSE by Ann Bowen

COURSEWORK
SING STATISTICS correctly
U in your coursework will: Type of house No. of bedrooms
Column A
Price (£)
Column B
Ranked prices of houses
• help you to gain more marks
TH 4/5 205,000 1 205,000
• take the analysis of your data one D 4 175,000 2 199,000
step further D 4 160,000 3 179,950
• give your work greater precision TH 3 85,950 4 175,000
TH 3 78,950 5 175,000
• help you to see relationships and TH 4/5 139,500 6 160,000
patterns TH 4 59,500 7 159,950
T 2 99,000 8 159,950
• help you to draw reliable
SD 3 72,500 9 159,000
conclusions.
SD 3 66,500 10 149,500
D 4 159,000 11 139,500
But you must ensure that you TH 4/5 159,950 12 115,000
understand why you are using TH 4/5 105,000 13 105,000
the technique and make sure SD 3 84,500 14 99,950
your data is suitable. This should TH 3 92,500 15 99,000
T 2 55,950 16 95,000
be thought about in the early
T 2 61,500 17 92,500
stages of planning your TH 4/5 159,950 18 85,500
coursework. It is especially SD 3 70,000 19 84,950
important that you collect D 4 149,500 20 79,950
enough data to make the T 2 59,900 21 78,950
calculations worthwhile. SD 3 79,950 22 72,500
D 4 199,000 23 70,000
SD 3 69,500 24 69,500
Once you have collected your SD 3 95,000 25 66,500
data, produce neat summaries of TH 4/5 179,950 26 61,500
the results. This is often best TH 4/5 175,000 27 59,900
achieved in table form. Then you TH 4/5 115,000 28 59,500
may be able to carry out some TH 4/5 99,950 29 55,950
simple calculations, such as:
TH = town house T = terraced D = detached SD = semi-detached
• adding up totals
• calculating percentages Figure 1: House prices in a city
• working out the range, mean, The range bedroom town houses have a
median and mode. mean price of £148,881. Can
The price range is the difference
in price between the highest and you work out the mean for the
Figure 1 shows some data on the the lowest. In Figure 1 this is other house types? If you knew
prices of houses in a city, copied £205,000 – £55,950 = where these houses were in the
from the local newspaper in no £149,050. city, it would be possible then to
particular order. When they are work out the mean house price
not in any order, as in Column A, The mean for different areas of the city.
they don’t tell us very much. This is the average house price
Column B shows the house prices worked out by adding up all of The median
in order – they have been ranked. the totals and dividing by the This is the mid-point or middle
This shows that some total number of houses in the price in the rank of values. From
organisation of the data has taken data set. From Figure 1 this is Figure 1 this is £99,000. This
place. Various calculations can be £114,241. It may also be useful value could be compared with the
made from this ranked data, as to work out the mean or average median of house prices for
follows. price for different types of another city, or used to compare
houses. In Figure 1 the 4/5- different areas within a settlement.

Series 14 Autumn issue Unit 272 How to Use Statistics in GCSE Coursework © 2002 Nelson Thornes GeoActive Online
This page may be photocopied for use within the purchasing institution only. Page 1 of 4
 Figure 2: Calculating the mode for
the data in Figure 1
The mode
This is the most common value or
range of values in a set of data. In
Figure 1 there are two properties
with a value of £175,000, and two
with a value of £159,950, so there
are two modal prices, but that
could have happened by chance,
and most of the prices are only
represented once. In this case it
would be better to group the data
as shown in Figure 2. The data is
shown as a bar graph, and it is
clear to see that the modal groups
are £50,000 to £100,000.
Using the results, you may decide
to investigate the location of those
houses with an above-average
price and try to explain why they
are more expensive. Alternatively
you may choose a particular house
type and investigate reasons why
the prices vary so much.
More advanced statistical
tests
1 Looking at the distribution of
variables in a set of data using
the median
Interesting results are often found
by examining the spread of values
in a data set. This is often done by:
• working out an average value, then
• looking at how the data is grouped
around the average.
One method of doing this uses the
median and quartile values.
GeoActive Online
Page 2 of 4
Figure 3: Prices (£) of 3-bedroom terraced houses and a dispersion diagram
for the house prices in areas A and B of the same town
Stage 1 Finding the median
Figure 3 shows house prices for
the same type of house in two
different areas of a city, and the
house prices plotted in a
dispersion diagram. The diagrams
can then be used to find the
median. Each housing area has 15
house prices, so the median, or
mid-point, is the eighth value in
the distribution whether you work
from the top or the bottom. For
housing area A the median is
£77,500 and for area B £53,250.
Area B therefore has a much lower
average house price. This could be
further explored in the
coursework to find out why.
Stage 2 Looking at the spread of
values around the median
The data can then be split into
quartiles. The upper quartile is the
value with 25% of values lying
above it. The lower quartile is the
value with 25% of values below it.
The median represents the semi-
quartile with 50% of values above
and below it.
The upper quartile for area A =
£84,500 and for B = £54,950.
The lower quartile for area A =
£71,900 and for B = £51,950.
These figures can then be used to
work out the inter-quartile range.
This is the upper quartile minus
the lower quartile.
Series 14 Autumn issue Unit 272 How to Use Statistics in GCSE Coursework © 2002 Nelson Thornes
This page may be photocopied for use within the purchasing institution only.
Inter-quartile range for A =
£84,500–£71,900 = £12,600.
Inter-quartile range for B =
£54,950–£51,950 = £3,000.
The inter-quartile range covers the
middle 50% of values in a data
set. The higher the figure then the
greater the spread of values
around the median. In the
example above, area A has a much
greater variation in prices for the
same type of house in the area
studied. The next step would be to
investigate why.
2 Testing relationships between
data sets
If you have collected two sets of
data you may be expecting a
relationship to exist between the
two, for example:
• a decrease in temperature as height
of the land increases
• an increase in house price as
distance from the city centre
increases
• a decrease in tourists as distance
from the beach increases.
When studying relationships the
dependent and independent
variables can be recognised. The
dependent variable is the one
that depends upon the value of
the other. For example,
temperature is the dependent
variable in the first relationship
above. Which are the dependent
variables in the others? The
relationship between two
variables can be shown on a
scatter graph or calculated using
Spearman’s Rank Correlation
Coefficient (rs).

Method 1 Drawing a scatter

graph
1 Draw two straight line axes.
2 Label the axes so that the
dependent variable is on the
horizontal (y) axis (except for
height which is always placed on
the vertical axis) and the Figure 4: Relationships shown by scatter graphs
independent variable is on the
vertical (x) axis. House Rank from Distance Rank from Difference Difference
3 Plot the values using dots or prices (£) highest to from market furthest away in rank in rank
crosses. lowest price place (m) to nearest (d) squared (d2)
4 If a relationship is evident, add a
line of best fit. 95,000 1 400 14 13 169
92,250 2 300 15 13 169
Figure 4 shows the different 87,500 3 1,200 5.5 2.5 6.25
types of relationship that are 85,950 4 600 12 8 64
possible. Describe the 84,500 5 550 13 8 64
relationship shown in your write- 79,950 6 750 11 5 25
78,950 7 850 9 2 4
up and try to explain it. Also
77,500 8 800 10 1 1
look closely for values that do
75,900 9 1,000 7 2 4
not fit the pattern. These are
73,950 10 950 8 2 4
called anomalies and may be
72,500 11 1,500 4 7 49
worth some special attention and 71,900 12 2,200 2 10 100
explanation. 70,000 13 1,200 5.5 7.5 56.25
69,500 14 2,500 1 13 169
Method 2 Spearman’s Rank 66,500 15 2,100 3 12 144
Correlation Coefficient (rs)
Always draw the scatter graph 2
/d2=1028.5
first. It will give you an idea of rs = 1– 36/d
the relationship to expect. n –n
Where:
Calculating the correlation will = 1– 6 x 31028.5 = 6171 / = sum of
tell you how strong the 15 – 15 3360 rs = Spearman’s Rank Correlation Coefficient
relationship is (Figure 5). Again, d = difference in rank
= 1– 1.84 d2 = difference in rank squared
this can be done electronically on
a spreadsheet or using a scientific = – 0.84 n = number of pairs

calculator. Once you have your

Figure 5: Calculating Spearman’s Rank
final value you can look it up on
the graph in Figure 6 to see how
significant it is. This is helped by
a large sample size – at least 15
values in each data set. Then you
need to interpret the result, say
what it means and try to explain
why the pattern exists. The
significence of the rs result can
be checked (see Figure 10 on
page 4).

Figure 6: Significant values for Spearman’s Rank Correlation Coefficient

Series 14 Autumn issue Unit 272 How to Use Statistics in GCSE Coursework © 2002 Nelson Thornes GeoActive Online
This page may be photocopied for use within the purchasing institution only. Page 3 of 4
 Activities West end of beach
2
13
East end of beach
34
7
Distance from
the centre (km)
0
Business rates
(£)
4,000
1 Figure 7 gives the size of 10 21 61
pebbles measured at the opposite 0.5 2,000
7 108
ends of a beach (20 pebbles in 1 1000
41 34
total). The student was 23 73
1.5 750
investigating whether longshore 38 127 2 500
drift was taking place. 9 29 2.5 650
(a) What percentage of pebbles 62 158 3 600
at each of the sites is: 59 67 3.5 450
(i) below 20 mm 4 300
(ii) above 50 mm? Figure 7: The sizes of 10 pebbles 4.5 10
(b) Calculate the mean, median measured at opposite ends of a 5 400
and mode for the two data sets. beach (long axis of pebble, mm) 5.5 200
(You will need to group the data 6 100
to calculate the mode.) 6.5 100
(c) Draw dispersion diagrams for 7 75
each data set and calculate the
upper and lower quartiles and Figure 8: How business rates
the inter-quartile range. change with distance from the city
centre
2 Two students investigated how
business rates decreased from the
centre of the CBD outwards. 1 Calculate the mean of the two
They obtained the results shown data sets.
in Figure 8. 2 Mark on the scatter graph the
(a) Draw a scatter graph and intersection of the two mean
sketch a line of best fit (Figure 9). values.
(b) Calculate the Spearman’s Checklist 3 Sketch the line of best fit to pass
Rank Correlation Coefficient for • Think about methods of processing through the mean intersection
the data and check its your data in the planning stages – and to bisect the other values
significance (see Figure 6). are you going to collect data plotted – this means that the line
(c) Describe and explain the capable of statistical testing? should have as many points on
results that you have obtained. • Collect enough data to make the one side of the line as the other.
tests worthwhile – a minimum of 20 (It is even more accurate if the
3 Which statistical tests could items is a good rule of thumb. mean is calculated of all of the
you use for the following types • Check that the tests you are going values above and below the
of data? to use are appropriate for the data mean already calculated, then
(a) River velocity at 10 sites – your teacher will help you with those two points plotted and a
along a river. this. line drawn to join up the three.)
(b) Different modes of transport • Having carried out calculations,
people use to travel to work. Figure 9: Drawing a line of best fit
always describe and explain the
(c) Environmental quality scores end results including any
from three areas in a town. anomalies.
(d) Quality of housing and
distance from the town centre.
(e) Visitor counts at different
times of the day in a holiday
resort.
(f) Number of shoppers in
different-sized shopping centres.

4 What are the four chief points

to think about when using
statistics in your coursework?
(See checklist.)

GeoActive Online Series 14 Autumn issue Unit 272 How to Use Statistics in GCSE Coursework © 2002 Nelson Thornes
Page 4 of 4 This page may be photocopied for use within the purchasing institution only.