Welsh Baccalaureate
Individual Investigation
Aims of today’s tutorial
In two hours time I will
•
Know what the individual investigation is, what it
needs to relate to, how long it should be.
• Know the 4 stages of the investigation and how each
stage is assessed.
• Have looked at different types of primary evidence
collection and will have picked some which will benefit
my investigation.
Quick questions
Spend 5 minutes answering these questions with the
person beside you
1.
What does your investigation have to be based upon?
2.
What are the 4 stages of the investigation?
3.
Of the four stages which is the most important part?
4.
Does the investigation have to be a comparison between two
examples e.g. How does the regeneration scheme in Cardiff
compare to that of the one in Melbourne?
5.
Does the investigation have to be a written presentation?
What does your investigation have to be based upon?
It can come from any part of your core subjects
•
Wales, Europe and the world
•
Work-related Education
•
Personal and social education
Or from your options ( your subjects/courses).
Or it can relate to a combination of both your core and options (
killing two birds with the one stone)
Studying
Geography
at AS
e.g. What are the effects of flooding on people?
A comparison of the effects of flooding on the people of
Wales, the Netherlands and Bangladesh.
Wales, Europe
And the world
(The impact of economic and technological change)
Steps
1.
Develop a plan strategy for carrying out the
investigation.
2. Identify sources, collect and record data
appropriate to the question.
3. Present the data collected in appropriate forms
4.Evaluate and draw conclusions based on the finings
of the investigation
1. Plan your investigation
At this stage you
should consider
Don’t make it complicated as this will make it harder to answer.
how you will
Choose something that interests you or
present your final
Measurable
can ityou
be measured?
relates to– what
might do in the future. piece of work.
Will you be able to go out and collect primary data to help you answer the question
Simple – a single question or hypothesis
It will make it more enjoyable and
Achievable – in the time given
youyou
may
be to
able
to present,
use it analyse,
again or
refer
Will
be able
collect,
draw
conclusions and evaluate the
investigation
ion the time
given?
to it in anchosen
interview
or personal
statement
or even use it as part of a portfolio !
Realistic - can it be done? Avoid what if questions
If you fail to plan – you plan to fail!
Ensure there is secondary information available on your investigation and if your
investigation
requires
something to help you answer the question ensure it is
Remember
be SMART!!!
realistic to carry out e.g. Interviews from Assembly Ministers in Wales and
members of the Amsterdam Government???
Time – how long will it take
Ensure you have enough time to collect information especially primary data – if you
need to do surveys, questionnaires, interviews make sure you do them early on in
the investigation.
Using sub- questions /sections, makes answering
the main question a lot easier as it gives you guidance on
what to include in each part in a logical order
Causes of
homelessness
Extent of the
problem
HOMELESSNESS
Effects of
homelessness on
those involved/
society generally
What is being
done/could be
done about
homelessness
Any type of investigation can be broken
down into the following 4 sub-questions
•
•
•
•
What exactly is the issue?
What are the causes?
What are the effects?
What are the solutions?
Task on planning
In pairs or threes (no more) read through the
planning of each of the 3 investigations and answer
these 3 questions.
1. What do all of these plans have in common?
2. Out of the three which doesn’t empahasise
the planning stage as well as the other 2?
3. Out of the 3 which one does your group
think will get the highest mark for the
planning stage?
Now use the assessment criteria (on page 2 of your note pages)
to assess the planning part of the investigation
‘What can be done to reduce the rates of childhood obesity’
Note: This investigation
passed but only barely.
Use it only as a guidelines
on how you can do an
improved version of your
own.
Sample 1
Comparative
How these sources will
be analysed is not mentioned here
but is shown in the next part under
Analysis so the candidate will not
Have lost any marks.
Relates to her option course
of health and social care.
It also relates to the core
as it has a theme of PSE.
How they went about
deciding on the issue.
(This pupil shows that s/he
researched the topic and then
decided on the question).
Sub-questions
shows thorough
planning
Shows the range of
primary and secondary
sources that will be used.
This candidate therefore got a
Good pass
Sample 2
Anorexia Wales
Thematic
S/he hasn’t identified the range of primary
and secondary sources s/he planned to use
and how these sources would be analysed.
Therefore this candidate only got a bare
pass in the planning stage.
This is something you really need to avoid
as there is a thin line between a bare
pass and fail!!!
How s/he went about
deciding the Investigation
Relates to option subject –
Psychology and core subject
of PSE
Shows thoruogh planning.
S/he researched another topic
But realised it wasn’t achievable
or realistic in the time given for
the investigation.
Shows it is a topic that
interests the candidate
Sample 3
All criteria of the planning stage has been met
therefore this candidate received a Good pass.
How s/he went about
deciding on the issue
and title of the
Investigation.
Shows thorough
planning
Outlines the primary
and secondary
resources s/he
plans to collect
Says how
these sources will
be analysed
2. Identify sources
You will need a combination of
Primary data
(You will analyse yourself)
• Questionnaires
• Surveys
Ensure you only use information that
• Sketches
will help you answer the question you
• investigating.
Diagrams
are
• Photographs
Secondary data
(which has been analysed by
someone else)
Take into consideration who has
• Books/Journals
wrote/carried out/analysed the
•Secondary
Newspapers/Magazines
data
(esp
data from the internet)
• Internet
and why they have done so.
• Any surveys, questionnaires
Even statistics can be biased (unfair).
carried out by someone
else.
USING QUESTIONNAIRES
1.What do you want to know?
•Be clear about the goal of the questionnaire.
Write down some questions you want your
questionnaire to address/ answer.
• What do you want to find out?
• What information do you require - Opinions,
Preferences, Ideas, Priorities, etc?
On an investigation on the success of redevelopment of an area of Swansea (SA1),
in order to design a questionaire I first had to come up with the questions I wanted
the questionaire to address. I came up with the following questions by looking closely at
The sub-questions of my investigation
1. How successful have recent changes been?
2.What reaction do residents and visitors have to these changes?
3.New jobs have been created, how else has the economic environment changed?
4.SA1 was designed to be a “self sufficent community” – is this the case?
Find out about car usage, local services/entertainment.
5.How, if all have perceptions to the area changed?
2. What is the audience?
Identify who should be interviewed?
What age group or group in society e.g.
Children (need parental permission)
teenagers, adults, parents, senior citizens.
How will you select the sample?
Will it be:
Random sampling ( no system)
Systematic (every 10th adult)
How big should the sample be?
How many surveys do you want completed
for you to get enough information to help
you in your investigation - 20, 40 etc.?
3. Audience + Purpose = Design
How should you write the questions?
• What will you do with the responses?
• Have you included one open-ended
type question?
•E.g. Why do you think that teenage
pregnancies is so high in Wales?
• Have you included a copy of the
questionnaire in the appendix of the
investigation?
•
4. Gather Information
• Have you completed the survey?
• Have you collated responses using tally charts? (see example below)
• Have you recorded results in a spreadsheet? (Excel)
• Have you included a copy of the spreadsheet in the appendix
of the investigation?
Tally sheet
Location: Outside Sainsburys in Tenby Date:05/0210
Questions:
Time: 11am
Sample size: 20
1. Male //////
Female//////////////
2. Under 18
//
3. Yes
///
19-31
///
32- 45
///////
No
/////////////////
45-64
/////
65+
///
5. How will this information be used?
• Have you used the most appropriate chart, graph or
table to present the results?
• Have you used the evidence from the questionnaire to
form a conclusion about local/Wales perspective of the
Individual Investigation?
If you have spent time planning the questionnaire, giving them out and tallying
your results ensure you use your results (evidence) in drawing conclusions
to your investigation.
Don’t just stick in the questionnaire and charts to show the results and not discuss
findings.
Types of Questions
• Two important aspects are structure of the questions
and the types of response formats for each question.
• There are many different types of questions.
• The most common are closed and open questions.
What are the potential problems in the
To personal
shopping survey below?
To many open ended questions – how
would you represent the results?
Closed (or multiple choice)
questions
• Respondent choose an option and are asked to tick or
circle the chosen answer.
• These questions provide data which is easy to
present in the form of a chart, graph or table.
Two choices questions
This type should be limited to only 1 or 2.
Did you watch television at all yesterday?
Yes / No
Do not present in pie chart or bar chart, just
state a fraction or percentage.
E.g. Only 13% of the population surveyed new that Wales had the
pregnancy in Western Europe
Multiple Choice questions
Which of these shops do you
prefer?
Next / River Island / Top
Shop / Primark
Present as bar chart if
interested in how
many for each option but use
a pie chart
if proportion of the whole is
important.
Next
River Is
Top shop
Primark
48
46
44
42
Next
Primark
Number scales
Make sure categories do not overlap, they
must be mutually exclusive.
1. How old are you?
Under 20 20 – 30
or more
2.
31 – 40
41 – 50
51 – 60
61
How often do you watch TV on a typical day?
Less than 1 hour
hours
1 – 3 hours
more than 3
Present as bar chart if interested in how many for each
option but a pie chart if proportion of the whole is
important.
Rank order
Please indicate, in rank order, your preferred
chocolate bar, putting 1 next to your favourite
through to 5 for your least favourite.
Double Decker
……..
Crunchie
……..
Wispa
……..
Mars Bar
……..
Creme Egg
……..
Present as a table or component bar chart
Agreement scale
4 options ensure a choice is made, with 5
options many choose the middle.
How much do you agree with the following
statement?
Assessment by coursework is easier than
assessment by examination.
Strongly agree
disagree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly
Rating scale
1.
2.
How would you rate this product?
Excellent
Good
Fair
Poor
On a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 is not interested
at all and 5 is very interested.
How interested are you in using this exhibit in an
exhibition?
1 2
3
4
5
Present as bar chart if interested in how many for
each
option but a pie chart if proportion of the whole is
important.
Open-ended questions
• Respondents answer in their own words.
• These questions can be difficult to analyse.
• Should be at the end of the questionnaire.
What are your favourite TV programmes?
(Please specify their titles)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . .
What do you think
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . .
are the main causes of racism?
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Plagiarism
• If you copy a piece
of writing from
someone else and
present it as being
your own work, this
is called plagiarism.
From the website of Austin Community College
Library.austincc.edu/gen-info/facplagiarism.htm
Warning!
• If your Individual
Investigation
includes work copied
from someone else
and you have not
properly
acknowledged or
referenced it, you
will fail.
• The same is true of
copying another
person's ideas or other
creative work.
• Even if you get
permission you must
always acknowledge the
source of your
information.
www.fotosearch.com
Provide references when
you…
• Use any facts, statistics, graphs,
drawings—any pieces of information—
that are not common knowledge;
• Use another person’s idea, opinion, or
theory;
• Use quotations of another person’s
actual spoken or written words; or
• Paraphrase another person’s spoken or
written words.
How are sources usually
referenced or cited?
• As you go along e.g. following
each quote used
• In footnotes
• In a bibliography
How are sources usually
referenced or cited?
•Always put quotes in
quotation marks. This
marks them as not
your own words.
Paraphrasing
• Although you use your own
words to paraphrase, you must
still acknowledge the source of
the information.
• Be sure you are not just
rearranging or replacing a few
words.
www.flickr.com/photos/swiv/397687582/
Do you have to provide references for
every fact you use?
• Obvious facts readily available from
numerous sources and generally known to
the public are considered "common
knowledge."
• They are not protected by copyright laws
so do not have to be referenced.
e.g. ‘The President of the United States is
Barak Obama.’
www.ustream.tv/
Using the internet
•You must remember that it is
important to acknowledge information
you find on the internet in the same
way as other sources and not just cut
and paste it into your work.
•The same is true if a writer wants to
use an image from a website.
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/07/
03/
0311_techcheats/source/2.htm
Always add a bibliography
• A bibliography is a list of
all the sources you have
used in the process of
researching your Individual
Investigation.
schol.wordpress.com
You could consider using an
annotated bibliography
• An annotated bibliography is
the same as a bibliography
with one important
difference: in an annotated
bibliography, the information
is followed by a brief
description of the content,
quality, and usefulness of the
source.
schol.wordpress.com
Remember - always
provide references for your
sources!
• within the text
• in the bibliography at the
end.
www.thekimchallenge.com
….and finally
• Do not leave your work until
the last minute, in order to
avoid panic plagiarism.
http://www.hotelforiimperialicavalieri.com/