G3B Individual Research Enquiry Task for 2016

G3B Individual Research Enquiry Taskfor 2016

Centres/individual candidates requiring additional support should complete the G3B Candidates’ Individual Project Approval Form.

Written in partnership with Field Studies Council (FSC).

FSC is an environmental education charity established in 1943. It is the leading provider of fieldwork with over 50% of all A Level geography students visiting its network of centres each year.

For further information please visit:

http://www.field-studies-council.org/outdoorclassroom


GB3 Individual Research Enquiry Task 2016Deprivation: Contrasts in deprivation © WJEC CBAC Ltd

Geography GCE – G3B Topics and Titles for 2016

Spec. No

THEME TOPIC

G3.2.1 Geography of Crime

G3.2.2 Deprivation Contrasts in deprivation

G3.2.3 Geography of Disease

G3.2.4 Environmental Psychology

G3.2.5 Leisure and Recreation

G3.2.6 Microclimates

G3.2.7 Atmospheric and Water Pollution

G3.2.8 Geography of Retailing

G3.2.9 Rivers

G3.2.10 Small Scale Ecosystems

Written in partnership with Field Studies Council (FSC). FSC is an environmental education charity established in 1943. It is the leading provider of fieldwork with over 50% of all A Level geography students visiting its network of centres each year. http://www.field-studies-council.org/outdoorclassroom



Spec No

Theme Potential aims/titles for an investigation

G3 2.2 Deprivation: Contrasts in deprivation

Do levels of deprivation change from the inner-city to the suburbs?

To what extent do perceptions of deprivation vary within a given area?

Is deprivation in rural areas different from urban areas?

Is deprivation always worse in inner city areas?

1. Planning Stages of the Investigation

Develop your knowledge of the topic by consulting geographical literature or searching the internet.

This topic is covered in G2 Changing Human Environment Key Question 2.2‘How does the social and cultural structure of settlements vary and why?

Decide on issue to be investigated and develop your knowledge of the places being studied.

Candidates may decide on an overarching enquiry question, such as:To what extent do different groups of peoples’ perceptions of crime vary within Oxford?

Alternatively, candidates may present their enquiry as a hypothesis, such as:Levels of deprivation are more significant closer to Cardiff’s CBD.

Decide on the location for the investigation and develop your knowledge of the place(s) being studied.

Decide on a number of potential locations for fieldwork using O.S maps, local knowledge, local newspaper reports, as well as the census and secondary data from the internet.

The size of the areas chosen will need to reflect the available time allocated and quantity of data needed to provide a meaningful conclusion. Sampling within selected areas will be needed and this might require a vehicle or extensive use of bus routes.




Visit your chosen location for a pilot survey.

This is necessary to familiarise candidates with the environment they will be studying and to confirm its suitability.

Undertake a risk assessment.

Candidates need to identify potential risks and how they can be minimised. Teacher and/or parental approval is essential.

Obtain any equipment (if required) checking availability and how to operate it.

Candidates need to check the availability of suitable equipment and be shown how to operate it, checking that it is in working order and complete with batteries/chargers. This will ensure that they maximise both the quality and quantity of data they will be collecting.

Prepare recording sheets/ design questionnaire surveys.

Candidates should be encouraged to design their own recording sheets and/or questionnaires in the classroom before undertaking fieldwork. Pilot recording sheets and/or questionnaires should be tested either with teacher and/or peer support.

Decide on sampling strategy/ies.

This stage involves a revision of sampling strategies studied during the AS course. Selected sampling strategies need to be justified and decisions for the non-use of others need to be given.

Check weather conditions if relevant.

Weather conditions are more critical to the success of some fieldwork methods than others.

Decide on day, date and time of survey.

In this study it would also be important to record the time of day and season as this may affect the participants of questionnaires or photographic analysis.

Arrange appointments if your investigation involves interviews/visits.

Identify a clear question, hypothesis or issue. Developing sub questions may help to bring greater clarity to complex investigations.


2. Data Collection



Candidates may decide on an overarching enquiry question, such as:To what extent do different groups of people’s perceptions of crime vary within Oxford?With sub-questions such as:Do different groups of people have different perceptions of different types of crime?How do people’s perceptions of crime affect their behaviour?

Alternatively, candidates may present their enquiry as a hypothesis, such as:Levels of deprivation are more significant closer to Cardiff’s CBD.With sub-questions such as: How do economic, social and environmental levels of deprivation vary from Cardiff’s inner-city to the suburbs?To what extent are young people affected by social deprivation in the inner-city compared to the suburbs?

Justify the reasons for selecting the location and the data set(s) you plan to collect.

Justification can be based on accessibility, safety concerns and considerations of scale, as well as the time available to complete the data collection.

Briefly outline the geographical context of your investigation.

Ensure that candidates provide a ‘sense of place’ about the area under investigation. From an assessment perspective it is useful for the examiner to obtain an understanding of the location, scale of the study and the time-scales involved.

Describe your field area with words and an annotated base map; you could also give some background information about the area.

A sketch-map may be useful, together with a brief summary of the location studied and its characteristics.

Describe how you collected the data for your study. Include recording sheets / sample questionnaires.

The description should include a stage by stage account of precisely how the data was collected. The hallmark of a good description is that it can be replicated. Recording sheets and/or questionnaires should be included.

Explain the sampling technique(s) used and justify your choice(s).

The AS Specification requires candidates to understand the importance of sampling and avoiding bias when collecting data. Selected sampling strategies need to be justified as well as decisions for the non-use of others.

Briefly discuss any difficulties/ factors affecting your enquiry (e.g. bad weather) and possible bias when collecting information.

Difficulties may include the need to adapt/alter the methodology because of unforeseen circumstances. Candidates should think critically about the accuracy and rigour of the data collection methods used.

Primary Data Examples (note many of these techniques can be adapted and used for each question)

Secondary Data Examples(note many of these techniques can be adapted and used for each question)




Do levels of deprivation change from inner-city to the suburbs?

Housing Condition Survey: Transects out from inner-city through suburbs, sample points in enumeration districts depending on the landscape. This might include condition of the brickwork, external paint work, chimney, external doors, roofs, windows, guttering and/or garden. For example: It might be assessed on a 1 to 5 scale, with certain descriptors for each level. It might also include observations of the garden sizing or car/garage facilities e.g. gardens below one car size, gardens 1-4 car sizes, gardens 4+ car sizes etc. Housing density could also be estimated within each comparable area, as well as ages of housing.

Crime Survey: Crime perception: surveys, questionnaires or indices e.g. a questionnaire for residents. Observations in different urban areas of the burglar alarms, anti-crime features. This could be combined with some secondary crime data into an index for each output area.

Green Space Survey: This could include mapping the green spaces available, as well as assessing their accessibility, economically or perhaps socially.Example of types of green

Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD) http://wales.gov.uk/statistics-and-research/welsh-index-multiple-deprivation/?skip=1&lang=en(English Language Version)

www.ons.gov.uk This is the official website of the Office for National Statistics. You can search by postcode or map to find all sorts of data about each ward (an enumeration district) in your chosen area.

http://www.checkmyfile.com/postcode-check/SW1A-2AA.htmPostcode code data including house prices, social grades, crime rates etc.

http://opendatacommunities.org/showcase/deprivation OpenDataCommunities.org Deprivation mapper, maps factors such as income, employment, health and disability, education, skills and training, crime and living environment.

Services Index: Google Earth can be used to estimate the distances to major supermarkets, schools, free cash points etc. https://www.google.com/earth/




space:Parks and Gardens e.g. urban parks, formal gardens and country parks.Natural and semi-natural green spaces: e.g. publicly accessible woodlands, meadows, wetland.Amenity green space e.g. informal recreation space and village greens.Provision for children and young people e.g. designated play areas and skate parks.Outdoor sport facilities e.g. golf courses, playing fields.Allotments e.g. community gardens and farms.

Photographic Analysis: Taking photographs for later analysis could provide information on ages, clothing types, activities carried out, and numbers of people that are located within an area. If it is not possible to take photos within an area, notes can be taken within say a 3 minute period, noting down defining characteristics of the people in the area.

Car Age Survey: For each of the cars parked in a survey area, record its age by taking its year of registration and then the average age of the cars in an area can be worked out.

Primary Data Examples (note many of these techniques can be adapted and used for each

Secondary Data (note many of these techniques can be adapted and used for each question)




question)To what extent do perceptions of deprivation vary within a given area?

Questionnaires: Could collect data about different aspects of quality of life from different stakeholder groups possibly taking account of ethnicity, personal background and socio-economic level. Could also collect views on community cohesion: do people eat 5-a day, safety perception crime, traffic / pollution etc.E.g. Students could provide a list of possible community problems such as vandalism, gang crime, litter etc. and ask people to rate if it’s a big problem, a fairly big problem, not a problem etc.

Extended interviews: Either from business owners, local policy and decision makers or resident focus groups, targeting the individual and stakeholder perceptions of the area. This could be linked with the crime coverage map, showing the actual crimes versus the perception of crime elicited from the extended interviews or the questionnaires.

Residents Perception Survey: By asking residents to select words from a list that describe the area that they live in, this would provide information about perceptions within each area.

Crime Coverage Mapping:http://www.police.uk/

Newspaper reports: Selections of newspaper reports could be analysed for perceptions of the area, linked directly to the different stakeholder groups. Estimations could be of the amount of space and prominence given to a story or stakeholder group.

Website Audit: By analysing several different websites, made by different stakeholder groups, for perhaps positive or negative wording on the area. This would provide information on the varying perceptions of the deprivation.

Is deprivation in rural areas different from urban

This could focus on a whole range of things which might indicate deprivation so could be environmental factors,

Consumer classification Information: ACORN is a geodemographic segmentation of the UK’s population which segments small neighbourhoods, postcodes, or consumer households into 5 categories, 17 groups and 56




areas? political, social or economic, or a selection of all.

Environmental Quality: Indices or bi-polar scores to collect data about the general landscape and upkeep of the area. Students could combine this with photos that they take of the worst and the best images in each category.

Community Activities Mapping: data could be collected from websites, notice boards or newsletters on the number of community or recreational activities. This could be combined on a map of the community infrastructure e.g. playing fields, libraries, drop-in centres etc.

Accessibility Surveys: Focusing on one specific section of the population and the differences between urban and rural areas e.g. people with limited mobility http://www.geography-fieldwork.org/urban/urban-inequality/2-fieldwork.aspx

types http://acorn.caci.co.uk/what-is-acorn

Deprivation Indices: http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/Neighbourhood Statistics provide access to either neighbourhood summaries or detailed data sets.

Digital Exclusion Survey: Evidence shows that online access delivers substantial social and economic benefits to citizens and communities. These benefits include: improved educational attainment; better job prospects; better access to public services; cheaper goods and products; access to advice, information and knowledge; improved communication with family and friends; and enhanced democratic and civic participation. http://www.broadbandchecker.co.uk/ This site will allow checking of postcodes for broadband speeds for ADSL, cable, satellite and 3G, as well as speeds and offers from the major service providers.

Primary Data Examples (note many of these techniques can be adapted and used for each

Secondary Data (note many of these techniques can be adapted and used for each question)



http://acorn.caci.co.uk/what-is-acorn


question)Is deprivation always worse in inner city areas?

This question needs an area to compare the inner city too, this could be a rural area or perhaps the outer regions of the city. To make the question meaningful a discussion of ‘worse’ would be important.

Services surveys: e.g. libraries, post-offices, pub, doctors’ surgeries etc.

Food Availability Audit: Within a given area, locations of shops selling fresh and healthy foods could be mapped, together with an estimation of a cost of ‘standard grocery’ list.

Photographic evidence: Photos could be taken of the various areas within the city or area and annotated to take note of the building, environment, traffic, people, services, renewal schemes and upkeep etc. Or perhaps a photo that students think sums up the area – socially or economically.

Noise surveys: Using an app such as Sound Meter or Decibel 10th, measure the sound level within each area in dB.

Vandalism Audit: Subdivide vandalism into different types, e.g. graffiti, damage to bus shelters,

Aerial Housing Survey: http://local.live.com/ This website has excellent aerial photos and satellite images. You can use it to describe housing type and housing density. You can also use it to describe externalities: the features of the neighbourhood such as parks and busy roads that add positive or negative value to quality of life.

Health Surveys: http://www.apho.org.uk/resource/view.aspx?RID=116449Health Profiles for Local Authorities

Transport index: create an index which combines the frequency, length and cost of public transport to main service provision.

House Price Surveys: http://www.zoopla.co.uk/house-prices/




dumped litter etc. then map locations in which these were found, as well as an assessment of the severity of the vandalism.

Bus Route Audit. Collecting information about the availability of bus routes and where they go and at what times could provide detailed information about the access to the area’s services.

Example Crime Map from www.police.uk

Example from Open Data Communities Deprivation Mapper http://opendatacommunities.org/showcase/deprivation

Example of mapping Low weight births from Public Health England http://www.apho.org.uk/resource/view.aspx?RID=116449

3. Data Refinement and Display

Refine the data into tables.

Tables can be helpful in providing an effective summary of the data collected, compiled from individual recording sheets/questionnaires.



http://opendatacommunities.org/showcase/deprivation

http://www.police.uk/


Use a range of appropriate graphical techniques (given on pages 15 and 16 of the specification) to present the data accurately and clearly. Justify your choices.

It is expected that candidates will select more advanced techniques than those used at GCSE and AS. Candidates should be encouraged to be more innovative at this level through, for example, combining graphical and cartographical techniques together. Providing candidates with a list of suitable options may assist with the development and use of more advanced techniques. Candidates need to explain why the chosen technique has been used.

Include field sketches and annotated photographs.

Include any cartographical (mapping) techniques (given on pages 15 and 16 of the specification). Justify your choices.

Evaluate your methods of presentation – how effective are they in showing the data you collected. Would alternative methods have been better?

Data Refinement and displayDo levels of deprivation change from the inner- city to the suburbs?

Housing Condition Survey: Mapping the features that have been collected in each area, shading in using a key. Decide on the categories to include on the base map and construct a key. The categories are likely to arise from the combination of the condition of brickwork, roofs, paintwork etc. For example black for ‘in very poor repair and condition’ to light grey for ‘in a good standard of maintenance’. Garden size could be represented by located pictograms along the transect on the base map. Housing density could be represented on a scatter graph. Distance along the transect on the x-axis and housing density per km2 on the y-axis.

Green Space Survey: Depending on the area covered, this maybe represented as a dot map, showing point locations of the green spaces. A colour key could be used to distinguish between different types of green space, or perhaps the economic accessibility of each green space e.g. free or fee paying. Basic mapping the green space features on a base map may also be appropriate. If an index has been devised, then a choropleth may be appropriate.

Census Data: This is likely to be a choropleth map for the main variable e.g. household car ownership. This could be combined with proportional symbols map for the average age of the cars on the area from the Car Age Survey.

Photographic Analysis: Displaying this data could range from annotating a series of photographs with descriptions of the various aspects. It would also be possible to construct an analytical table to tally the frequency of different aspects and behaviours. For example people under 12, under 21, over 50. People individually or in pairs or groups. People smoking, sitting, climbing on street furniture, walking through an area etc.

Data Refinement and displayTo what extent do perceptions of deprivation vary within a given area?

Questionnaires: Usually displayed using a selection of pie graph, bar charts and pictograms. http://www.nfer.ac.uk/schools/developing-young-researchers/how-to-analyse-questionnaire-responses.cfm

Extended Interviews: Data coding is the process of examining data for themes, categories and key words. Students mark the text or chunks of text, so they can be compared and collated. http://onlineqda.hud.ac.uk/Intro_QDA/how_what_to_code.php

Residents Perception Survey: This could be displayed as pie charts or as percentages of residents who highlighted which word.

Is deprivation in rural areas different from

Environmental Quality: This could be displayed using radar diagrams, bar charts or mirror graphs.

Community Activities Mapping: This data is likely to be mapped directly



http://onlineqda.hud.ac.uk/Intro_QDA/how_what_to_code.php

http://www.nfer.ac.uk/schools/developing-young-researchers/how-to-analyse-questionnaire-responses.cfm


urban areas? on to a base map with a key explaining the different types of community activities. It could also be displayed by using a location quotient (see food availability below).


Food Availability Audit: This could be represented by a location quotient on a choropleth map. This indicates the concentration of the amount of shops selling fresh food within an area. See more information in the analysis section below.

Noise Surveys: An isoline map could be used to represent this data. The points at which the noise level was recorded would be chosen either randomly or at regular intervals, these are plotted onto a base map. Lines of equal measurement are then drawn.

Bus Route Audit: This could be represented as a flow line map, representing the location and volume of the buses along that route. The width of the line would directly relate to the numbers of buses on that route e.g. buses per hour with the arrowhead indicating the direction of flow.




Crime Map Llandudno – example from Field Studies Council using ESRI

Percentage Unemployed Choropleth Map. Example from Field Studies Council using ESRI

4. Description, Analysis and Interpretation




Describe and analyse each set of data. Summarise the data using measures of central tendency (mean, median and mode) and dispersion (standard deviation). Use other refining activities that may be relevant such as scaling, ranking and weighting.

Look for relationships between the data shown on the graphs and where appropriate use correlation.

Although Spearman’s Rank Correlation Coefficient (including statistical significance) is the only statistical technique listed in the AS Specification, candidates should be encouraged, where appropriate and possible, to use other statistical techniques such as Chi-squared and Mann-Whitney U test.

Discuss your findings using your geographical understanding of the topic, answering each sub-question in turn.

Findings can be defined as the evidence collected throughout the investigation and relate to the tabulation, presentation and analysis of the data collected. Findings can be distinguished from conclusions, which should be specifically related to the research question/sub-questions or hypothesis (es) and should provide an answer to them.

Description, Analysis and InterpretationDo levels of deprivation change from city centre to the suburbs?

Spearman’s Rank can be used to analyse some of this data, to test for the degree of relationship between a variable and the distance from the city centre. For example a null hypothesis might be, ‘There is no significant correlation between housing condition and distance from the city centre.’ Alternatively, students could combine the different data they have collected into a material and/or social deprivation index. For example, a material index might include housing density and households with no car, housing condition. An index for each area can be calculated by ranking each survey area, (1 being the best) for each indicator and taking an average over several indicators. This index can then be used in a Spearman’s rank test for example: ‘There is no significant correlation between the calculated material deprivation index and distance from the city centre.’ The same principle can be used for social deprivation factors.

To what extent do perceptions of deprivation vary within a given area?

Taking the sub-question as an example: Do different groups of people have different perceptions of different types of crime?

This could be analysed by using the Mann-Whitney U test: Looking at the difference between two sets of data – for example whether there is a significant difference in ‘perceptions of deprivation’ between teenagers and people over 50.

By identifying a series of indictors of deprivation from the questionnaires e.g. vandalism, crime, poverty, education level, employment etc. Then counting the numbers of responses to questions such as: Is vandalism a problem in this area? Yes, big problem. Yes sometimes. No, not really. Never.

No of yes, big problem responses.

Vandalism Personal Theft

Poverty Education opportunities

Unemployment

Teenagers 6 15 13 12 12Over 50’s 12 4 10 14 5

This data could then be used for a Mann Whitney U test.

Description, Analysis and InterpretationIs deprivation in rural areas different from

Students could use data on environmental quality to investigate sub-questions, such as is there a difference in environmental quality between rural and urban areas. In designing their environmental quality index indicators, they would need to include aspects relating to




urban areas? both urban and rural features of the environment.

Chi-squared test for difference could then be used.

Null Hypothesis: There is no significant difference in environmental quality (as an indicator of deprivation) between rural and urban areas.

Rural UrbanHigh quality environment, given by an area scoring above X in the environmental quality index

5 12

Good quality environment, given by an area scoring between X and X in the environmental quality index

9 7

Satisfactory environment, given by an area scoring between X and X in the environmental quality index

12 6

Poor quality environment, given by an area scoring below X in the environmental quality index

10 4


Food Availability Audit Location Quotient: This could be represented by a location quotient on a choropleth map. This indicates the concentrate of the amount of shops selling fresh food within an area. For example:

To calculate the Locational Quotient for the area:Calculate: the number of shops selling fresh food in area A / the number of shops in area A.Calculate: the number of shops selling fresh food in all your survey areas / the number of shops in all your survey areas.Divide the first figure by the second.

A LQ of less than 1 means area A has an above representation of the shops selling fresh foods.A LQ of 1 means area A has the same representation of shops selling fresh food as the whole survey area.A LQ of more than one means area A has a under representation of shops selling fresh foods.

Calculations would be made for each area within the survey region and a choropleth map could then be constructed.

5. Conclusion and Evaluation

Summarise the conclusions you have been able to reach about each of




your sub-questions. Your conclusions must be effective and acceptable, linking directly back to the questions.

Candidates need to ensure they provide developed conclusions that are supported with detailed evidence. Generalised conclusions are unlikely to achieve beyond Level 2.

Evaluate the methods of data collection and sampling techniques used.

Evaluative comment should include both advantages and disadvantages and be specific to the data collection and sampling techniques used.

Comment on the strengths and weaknesses of the study as a whole and the importance of obtaining accurate and reliable data.

Candidates should reflect critically on every stage of their investigation in order to appreciate its strengths and weaknesses. They should also comment on the level of accuracy and degree of reliability of data as these will have a significant impact on their findings and the conclusions drawn.

Suggest further research that could be carried out and/or questions to be answered.

Further research may involve extending the spatial and/or temporal scale of the study, conducting similar research in a different location(s) or creating further sub-questions that could be investigated.



Documents

G3B Individual Research Enquiry Task for 2016