Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
← Geography
GeographyGeographical skills and fieldwork enquiry25 min★★★ difficulty

GIS and presenting geographical data

Choosing the wrong graph hides your own findings. Choosing the right one makes the pattern obvious before you write a word.

Part of your national curriculum
  • Geographical skills and fieldwork: Use geographical information systems (GIS) to view, analyse and interpret places and data
  • Geographical skills and fieldwork: Interpret and analyse a range of quantitative and qualitative data, including statistical data on trends and relationships between geographical phenomena

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Choose and interpret the right technique for a set of geographical data.

Key learning points

  • • What GIS actually is
  • • Choosing a technique
  • • Describing data honestly
  • • Basic statistics

This lesson at a glance

  • 25 minutes
  • 17 parts to scroll through
  • 4 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

chooseinterprettechniquegeographicalchoosing

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 17 · Discover6%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 17

Watch first

GIS and presenting geographical data

An English teaching video on this topic from Evans Woolfe Media. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Choose and interpret the right technique for a set of geographical data.

2

Learning cycle

Part 2 of 17

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Part 1 · What GIS actually is

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

3

Explore the idea

Part 3 of 17

Learn

What GIS actually is

A geographical information system stores data in layers tied to real coordinates: a base map, then flood risk, then house prices, then bus routes. Turning layers on and off reveals relationships that a paper map cannot show, such as which schools sit inside a flood zone. GIS is used by councils planning housing, emergency services routing ambulances, supermarkets choosing store sites and conservation teams tracking habitats.

4

Explore the idea

Part 4 of 17

Learn

Choosing a technique

Use a line graph for continuous change over time, a bar chart to compare separate categories, a pie chart for proportions of a whole, a scatter graph with a line of best fit to test a relationship between two variables, a choropleth map for rates or densities by area, proportional symbols for totals at points, and a flow line for movement such as migration or traffic. Match the technique to the question, not to whichever looks prettiest.

5

Quick check

Part 5 of 17

Quick check

Which technique best shows the relationship between two variables?

6

Quick check

Part 6 of 17

Quick check

A choropleth map is best for

7

Learning cycle

Part 7 of 17

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Part 2 · Describing data honestly

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

8

Reset break

Part 8 of 17

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
9

Explore the idea

Part 9 of 17

Learn

Describing data honestly

Start with the overall trend or pattern, quantify it with figures from the data, then identify anomalies and say where they are. 'Discharge rose from 12 to 46 cumecs between 09:00 and 15:00, a fourfold increase, although a small dip at 11:00 interrupts the rise' is a complete description. Never describe a pattern the data does not show, and never leave a figure unquoted.

10

Explore the idea

Part 10 of 17

Learn

Basic statistics

The mean is the total divided by the number of values and is distorted by extremes. The median is the middle value when ordered and copes better with outliers. The mode is the most common value. The range is the difference between highest and lowest and shows spread. Interquartile range compares the middle half and is more reliable when a few results are unusual. Knowing which to use, and saying why, is a marked skill.

11

Quick check

Part 11 of 17

Quick check

Why is the median sometimes better than the mean?

12

Quick check

Part 12 of 17

Quick check

A GIS is most useful because it

13

Explore the idea

Part 13 of 17

Worked example

Worked answer: which technique and why (4 marks)

To test whether pedestrian counts fall with distance from the town centre, plot a scatter graph with distance on the x-axis and pedestrian count on the y-axis and add a line of best fit (2). A scatter graph is correct because both variables are continuous and numerical and the enquiry is about a relationship rather than a comparison of categories, and the line of best fit shows the direction and strength of that relationship, with any point far from the line identified as an anomaly worth explaining (2).

14

Challenge round

Part 14 of 17

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

15

Challenge round

Part 15 of 17

Game · Fill the gaps

Finish the sentences

Choose the word that belongs in each gap.

A ____ information system stores data in layers tied to real coordinates: a base map, then flood risk, then house prices, then bus routes.

GIS is used by councils planning housing, emergency services routing ambulances, supermarkets ____ store sites and conservation teams tracking habitats.

Match the ____ to the question, not to whichever looks prettiest.

16

Mastery quiz

Part 16 of 17

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: GIS and presenting geographical data

4 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. Which technique best shows the relationship between two variables?

  2. 2. A choropleth map is best for

  3. 3. Why is the median sometimes better than the mean?

  4. 4. A GIS is most useful because it

17

Lesson round-up

Part 17 of 17

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Case study

Flooding on the River Calder

The town of Harbrook sits where a steep valley opens onto a flat floodplain. In December 2015, 120 mm of rain fell in 36 hours onto ground that was already saturated. The river rose 2.4 m in five hours, and 380 homes and 54 businesses flooded. Two roads and the railway closed for eleven days.

Geographers pointed to physical causes — steep slopes, impermeable rock, heavy rainfall — and human causes: moorland drained upstream, new housing built on the floodplain, and drains designed for smaller storms.

Since then the town has planted 40 hectares of woodland upstream, built leaky dams in small streams, and raised flood walls to 1.8 m. In the storm of 2020 the peak river level was 0.3 m lower and 40 homes flooded, not 380.

Written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. List two physical and two human causes of the 2015 flood.
  2. Explain how planting woodland upstream lowers the river's peak level.
  3. Using the figures, judge how successful the scheme has been. Quote data in your answer.

  • Case study notes

    Writing

    Write the place, the facts and the figures from this lesson so you can revise them later.

    Half a page

  • Explain answer

    Writing

    Answer in full sentences, giving causes and effects. Use one figure or place name as evidence.

    8–10 sentences

  • Map or sketch

    Diagram

    Draw the map, cross-section or field sketch with a key, title and labels, then photograph it.

    1 map with a key

  • Data work

    Working out

    Plot your figures as a graph on paper and write one sentence about the pattern.

    1 graph + 1 sentence

Saved as you type.

Part 1 of 17 · Watch & discover

How this is going

  • Not looked at yet

    Use geographical information systems (GIS) to view, analyse and interpret places and data

  • Not looked at yet

    Interpret and analyse a range of quantitative and qualitative data, including statistical data on trends and relationships between geographical phenomena

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