Presentation of Biological Data
One of the best means of presenting biological data is by the use of graphs. Four types of graph
are commonly used in biology and it is important to know which type of graph is most appropriate
for a particular type of data. The four main graph types are bar charts, histograms ( a special
form of bar chart used to describe frequency distributions ), pie charts and scatter plots ( or line
graphs ).
This exercise is aimed at ensuring you are familiar with the differences between these graph
types.
In the following questions a particular data set will be described to you and you must choose
which of the four graphs (A,B,C,D) is most appropriate for the presentation of this data. Circle
your answer and give the reasoning as to why you chose that answer.
1) The body masses of 500 male undergraduates. One answer only.
Bar Chart
Histogram
Pie Chart
Scatter Plot
Reasoning:
2) The number of Biology undergraduates belonging to the different University
Colleges. One answer only.
Bar Chart
Reasoning:
Histogram
Pie Chart
Scatter Plot
3) The association between the number of cigarettes smoked per day and frequency
of lung cancer in England. One answer only.
Bar Chart
Histogram
Pie Chart
Scatter Plot
Reasoning:
4) The relationship between air temperature and transpiration rate of plants.
One answer only.
Bar Chart
Histogram
Pie Chart
Scatter Plot
Reasoning:
5) The number of first class degrees in biology for each year between 1980 and 1990.
One answer only.
Bar Chart
Histogram
Pie Chart
Scatter Plot
Reasoning:
6) The proportion of seedling in a forest destroyed by fungus, herbivores, pathogens,
trampling or wilting. One answer only.
Bar Chart
Histogram
Pie Chart
Scatter Plot
Reasoning:
7) The average number of eggs laid by five varieties of chickens. One answer only.
Bar Chart
Histogram
Pie Chart
Scatter Plot
Reasoning
8) The number of first, upper second, lower second, thirds, passes and fails in finals
at Durham in 1993. One answer only.
Bar Chart
Histogram
Pie Chart
Scatter Plot
Reasoning
9) The number of orchids found in each of 500 1m2 plots on Holy Island.
One answer only.
Bar Chart
Histogram
Pie Chart
Scatter Plot
Reasoning
10) The frequency of UK students belonging to Anglican, Catholic, Jewish, Islamic,
Hindi and Buddhist faiths. One answer only.
Bar Chart
Histogram
Reasoning
http://www.dur.ac.uk/stat.web/prestest.htm
Pie Chart
Scatter Plot