alton high street (human) Flashcards
(25 cards)
what is the hypothesis?
‘People in ______ choose to buy ___________ to reduce _______________.’
‘People in Alton choose to buy local food to reduce food miles.’
why is the hypothesis important?
- food that travels further by boat or plane to Alton would have a higher impact on the environment
- the extra pollution caused by the transport would release CO2, adding to global warming
- changing weather patterns and crop growth takes away locals’ jobs and affects the economy
- more frequent storms damages property and infrastructure, and changes wildlife populations
- counter by supporting local farms and businesses
why is Alton Highstreet an ideal place to carry out the project?
- 1 way traffic, 25 mph speed limit (safe)
- many pedestrians to question - Alton has a population of 20,000
- good cross-section/variety of people
- 5 minute walk from school (close)
what is the risk and risk management of parked cars?
- could affect visibility when crossing roads, making it more dangerous
- staff nearby will supervise students and don’t cross between parked cars
what is the risk and risk management of traffic?
- can cause accidents and injuries when crossing the road
- the one way system will limit the risk, as well as the 20mph speed limit and speed bumps
describe the data collected:
- primary data
- interviewed 169 people
- collected the data outside Boots and outside the Crown Hotel
how was the data collected?
- groups of 3
- one asked the questions, one recorded the tally, one held up the options
- we stood at the edge of the pavement and called out to most passers-by
- equipment: questions, data sheet, pen, clipboard, showcards
- a survey took 1-2 minutes
- we were at each location for 30 minutes
how did the data collected help us reach our hypothesis?
the majority of the people surveyed were local, and this satisfies the hypothesis. the fact that our surveying locations were in Alton further supports our hypothesis
what sampling methods were used?
the approach of people: random (no bias, everyone has an equal chance of being sampled)
finding the location: stratified (people or places are deliberately chosen according to the topic being investigated)
what were the pros and cons of this type of sampling for the project?
pros:
- stratified location would target shoppers in the high street as they are about to/had just done their food shopping
- stratified location ensures lots of people to question
- random tried to survey a wide range of people in Alton - all ages, gender, races
cons:
- random sampling may not cover a cross-section of the population (not all age ranges, gender, etc.). perhaps if you’d mainly been asking oldies, ask some younger people to get a wider age range
- stratified: shoppers visiting the high street may know more or less about food miles than other people in Alton
what were the strengths and weaknesses of the methods used?
strengths:
- quick and easy. wording of questions is good, multiple choice questions are easy to understand and speed up the process
- simple equipment (questions, clipboard, pen)
- location close to school
weaknesses:
- question 6 (are you from Alton) was in the wrong place and should have been at the start, as we only wanted to interview people from Alton
- multiple choice answers could limit people in what they want to say
- can be time-consuming if people want to chat
- involved people reading answers and choosing from a card, which could be challenging
describe the sample size:
- sample size was less than 1% of all of Alton’s residents
- interview more people on the high street (stay out longer, go out again, or find a busier location, e.g. Sainsbury’s) to increase sample size
describe the trends in the data found:
- most said brand is the least important factor
- most said quality is the most important factor, hardly any said food miles is the most important
- 2/3 understand what food miles are
what data presentation method was used?
pie chart
what are the strengths and weaknesses of the data presentation method?
strengths:
- easy to understand due to visual simplicity and widespread use in business and the media
- easy to compare data, can recognise patterns easily
- helps to answer hypothesis as it plots the answers to the questions asked
weaknesses:
- doesn’t show exact data values (can’t read scale) or locations
- can’t show 0 data scores - doesn’t have a slice on the chart
- hard to read with too many pieces of data
what does the data tell us about the hypothesis?
- the majority of Alton residents know what food miles are
- however, they’re not a priority when food shopping
- 19% said that food miles is the least important factor for them
- the data rejects our hypothesis
what anomalies were involved in the methodology?
- when doing surveys and asking people’s opinions, their choices won’t match, which creates differences in the data
- some potentially said they didn’t know what food miles were, but chose it later in the survey
do you accept or reject the hypothesis, and why?
- most knew what food miles are
- the most important factor when shopping is quality of food
- the least important factor is the brand of food
I reject the hypothesis, as almost 50% of people choose food based on quality, not food miles. only 3.6% of people chose food miles as the most important factor. to further reject the hypothesis, 18.9% of people chose food miles as the least priority
how else could this data have been collected?
- primary data
- an online survey (e.g. emailing parents of AHS). a google form that parents complete electronically
- OR leaving paper copies of your survey in food shops/supermarkets in Alton, for people to complete, we then collect it later
what secondary data sources may have been useful to the survey?
- ask local food shops if they have data on people’s shopping habits, or if they’ve surveyed people about food miles
- ask Alton Town Council/Alton Foodbank if they have any data on local shopping habits
- check past Amery Hill survey results
how could the data collection method be improved?
- survey for more than an hour and on different days, as we would have a wider greater and more diverse sample size
- change the sampling method halfway through - start targeting people for a wider range of opinions
- survey on a sunnier day (more people out), therefore greater variety and sample size. or survey at a certain time of day (e.g. after work), so more young people will be out, instead of elderly, retired people
how could the sampling method and sample size have affected the reliability of the results?
sampling method: random sampling means not a wide range of opinions. change from random sampling earlier on to get a wider range of opinions (more age groups)
sample size (and timings): survey on more days and a longer amount of time to get the sample size up, instead of for an hour on a random Tuesday
how could the weather conditions and equipment have affected the reliability of the results?
weather conditions: a cool, cloudy day probably meant that less people were shopping. better, warmer, sunnier conditions would means more people were outdoors, therefore a greater sample size
equipment: not an issue, it was minimal
how could the methodology have affected the reliability of the results?
Q6 on the survey ‘do you live in Alton?’ needed to be the first question as we only wanted to speak to people from Alton
