Geographical Skills Basic Skills To include: • annotation of illustrative material, base maps, sketch maps, OS maps, diagrams, graphs, sketches, photographs etc • use of overlays • literacy skills. Investigative Skills To include: • identification of geographical questions and issues, and effective approaches to enquiry • identification, selection and collection of quantitative and qualitative evidence from primary sources (including fieldwork) and secondary sources • processing, presentation, analysis and interpretation of evidence • drawing conclusions and showing an awareness of the validity of conclusions • evaluation • risk assessment and identification of strategies for minimising health and safety risks in undertaking fieldwork. Cartographic Skills To include use of: • atlas maps • base maps • sketch maps • Ordnance Survey maps at a variety of scales • maps with located proportional symbols – squares, circles, semi-circles, bars • maps showing movement – flow lines, desire lines and trip lines • detailed town centre • choropleth, isoline and dot maps. In addition, to include at A2: • weather maps – including synoptic charts. Graphical Skills To include use of: • line graphs – simple, comparative, compound and divergent • bar graphs – simple, comparative, compound and divergent • scatter graphs – and use of best fit line • pie charts and proportional divided circles • triangular graphs • kite and radial diagrams • logarithmic scales • dispersion diagrams. ICT Skills To include: • use of remotely sensed data – photographs, digital images including those captured by satellite • use of databases, e.g. census data, Environment Agency data; meteorological office data • use of geographical information systems (GIS) • presentation of text and graphical and cartographic images using ICT. Statistical Skills To include at AS: • measures of central tendency – mean, mode, median • measures of dispersion – interquartile range and standard deviation • Spearman’s rank correlation test • application of significance level in inferential statistical results. In addition, to include at A2: • comparative tests – Chi-squared, Mann Whitney U Test.
Cartographic Skills Map Type Description Map Example Maps with located proportional symbols These symbols are drawn proportional in size to the size of the variable being represented. The symbol used can theoretically be anything. Most common are squares, bars and circles. Squares and Bars The method for drawing proportional bars or squares is: 1. Examine the data and decide on your scale. The length of the bar will be proportional to the value it portrays. 2. Draw your bars on a base map, one end of the bar located next to the place to which it refers. 3. Bars should be of uniform width, solid looking and can be placed vertically or horizontally. Circles and semi-circles The method for drawing proportional circle or semi-circles is: 1. Calculate the square root of the values 2. Multiply each square root by a constant: this you the radius of each circle. 3. Draw the circles and mark the on the map The circles can be divided Maps showing movement – flow lines Flow line maps are used for portraying movements or flows, such as traffic flows along roads or flows of migrants between countries. A line is drawn along the road, or from the country of origin to country of destination, proportional in width to the volume of the flow.
Maps showing movement – desire lines and trip lines A desire-line diagram the movement of phenomena from one place to another. Each line joins the places of origin and destination of a particular movement. Trip lines can be used to show regular trips, for example where people shop; lines could be drawn from a town to nearby villages Chlorophleth Maps In chlorophleth or shading maps, areas are shaded according to a prearranged key, each shading or colour type representing a range of values. Generally, the darker the colour the higher the number will be that it represents. Isoline Maps Isolines are on map map that join points of equal value (e.g. contour lines, isotherms, isobars). They can only be used when the variable to be plotted changes in a fairly gradual way across space. Dot Maps In dot mapping, dots of a fixed size are given a value representing a variable such as crop yield or numbers of people. Other maps that the syllabus says you need to be aware of and able to use include: • Atlas Maps • Base maps • Sketch Maps • Ordnance Survey Maps at a variety of scales • Detailed town centre plans
Statistical Skills Statistic Type Description Example Mean The mean ( x ) is what you know as the average, and you find it by adding together all the values consideration and dividing the total by the number of values. Data,: 3, 4, 4, 4, 6, 6, 9 x : 3 + 4 + 4 + 6 + 6 + 9 = 36 = 5.1 7 7 Mode The mode is simply the most frequently occurring event. If we are using simple numbers, the mode is the most frequently occurring number. If we are looking at data on the nominal scale (grouped into categories), the mode is the most common category Data: 3, 4, 4, 4, 6, 9 Mode (most frequently occurring number) = 4 Median The median is the central value in a series of ranked values. If there is an even number of values, the median is the mid-point between the two centrally placed values. Data: 3, 4, 4, 4, 6, 9 Median (central value) = 4 Data: 3, 4, 4, 6, 6, 9 Median = 5 Interquartile range The interquartitle range is a measure of the spread of values around their median. The greater the spread the higher the interquartile range. Stage 1 Place the variables in rank order, smallest largest last. 2 Find the upper quartile. This is found by taking the 25% highest values and finding the mid between the highest of these and the next highest value. Stage 3 Find the lower quartile. This is obtained by taking the 25% lowest values and finding the mid-point between the highest of these and the next highest value. 4 Find the difference between the upper and lower quartiles. This is the interquartile range, a crude index of the spread of values around the median Monthly average temperatures Ranked: 4 5 5 7 7 9 11 12 15 15 17 17 l l lower upper quartile quartile 6 15 Interquartile Range: (15 – 6) = 9