Scribd
Upload
15 views9 pages

Year 8 Science Chapter 1 Scientific Data

The document discusses different types of data including primary and secondary data. Primary data is data collected directly through experiments while secondary data has already been collected by others. The document provides examples of quantitative and qualitative data and discusses improving data quality by reducing errors and outliers in measurements for primary data.

Uploaded by

ruihanhuang1
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
15 views9 pages

Year 8 Science Chapter 1 Scientific Data

The document discusses different types of data including primary and secondary data. Primary data is data collected directly through experiments while secondary data has already been collected by others. The document provides examples of quantitative and qualitative data and discusses improving data quality by reducing errors and outliers in measurements for primary data.

Uploaded by

ruihanhuang1
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 9

Scientific Data

1.1 Primary Data

• Data refers to all the observations and


measurements that can be used to
describe something.
• Eg. Your height, weight..
• The data on the parrot could
include its colour, sex, body temp…

• Primary Data is data that you


personally found out by running
your own experiments
Types of Data

• Quantitative Data: Measurements that


are written as numbers with units
attached to them
• Coordinates, height, average
temperature

• Qualitative Data: Can only be


described in words
• Rock type, animals that live
there, names

Pages in a book? Colour of a car?


Brand of smartphone used? Income
of a household?
Collecting your data

• Mistakes are things that can be avoided if


you took more care

• Errors aren’t mistakes, they are small and Image 2


unavoidable variations that occur naturally
in measurements. They will always happen
no matter how careful you are.
• Eg. Parralax error, your eye can
never be exactly over the marking of
a measuring device (see image 1)
• Eg. Reading error, measurements
often fall between the markings of a
measuring device, different people
will make slightly different
estimations (see image 2)
Image 1
Errors continued…

• Instrument errors: sometimes a


measuring instrument may be faulty and
not give the right reading.
• Human reflex errors: sometimes a
human reaction time when using a
stopwatch can be different, so data can
vary
How to improve primary data?

• 1. one way of improving accuracy is to repeat the measurements


• Can be used to identify and disregard any outliers
• You can then calculate the average (or mean) of the remaining data
• This is because the average will be the most accurate and has evened out
all the small errors that have been made in measurement

Eg. Find the mean of these measurements, and disregard outliers:

5.1cm, 5.0cm , 5.0cm , 3.2cm , 5.1cm , 5.0cm


1.2 Secondary Data

• Information that has already been found


by other scientists
• Textbooks, encyclopedias,
magazines, journals
• URL
• .au , .edu , .gov , .com , .net , .org

Have a look at the text box on the


right!
Improving secondary data

• Can’t really improve it, but simple checks can be made to ensure the data
can be trusted:
• how old is the data
• Figures may change over time and stats need to be constantly updated

• Where did it come from?

• What is the URL?


.au , .edu , .gov , .com , .net

You might also like