Formative Activity: Large Data Sets (500 words Blog)

This formative activity is simply to write a blog or rather a series of blogs describing your journey with finding an appropriate dataset for Element 011. Writing this blog as you go along and NOT at the end of your journey is vital as it means we can keep track of what you are planning to do and help you along the way. Post your blog on the discussion board.

The following exercise should help you to start to putting together your Data Blog/Reflective Diary and this will be important for getting started in Element 011.

1 First you need to choose an appropriate data set.

This should be a large-scale (geographical and/or historical) data set that may be of use in a conservation context. It is a good idea to describe the process of deciding on an appropriate data set.

2 You should then describe the data set itself including the answers to some/all of the following questions:

• How is the data collected?
• What is the quality of the data? (Reliability & Validity)
• What format is the data in and how easy is it to access for analysis?
• Is there a 'Data Dictionary'?
• Your Personal Blog should be a reflective diary of your interaction with data as you work out what story to tell.

3 Think of a story of conservation importance that you may be able to tell using this data.

4 Finally you need to work out what you need to do to the data in order to tell the story, including identifying the best tools for the job.

Assessment Description

Environmental data is usually very complex and ‘messy'. Summarising this sort of data and presenting it in such a way that you can make a convincing conservation argument is a continuing challenge. For this assessment you will be expected to choose a real-world data set, analyse it and present it in appropriate format for two different audiences with a reflective account (total 3,000 words equivalent):

1. As a Governmental briefing paper (a good example would be the POSTNotes).produced by POST.

2. For the general public (please see description of Part 2 in Element 010).

3. You will create a data diary blog within CANVAS and update according to your progress or issues with finding and analysing real data. Your reflective account should reflect on this data diary and on the webinars and seminars from week 8 onwards.