Numeracy and ICT opportunities for year 7

Members of the Secondary Education Section Committee highlight how you can use ICT to support numeracy development in geography.

One of the main advantages of using ICT for work in numeracy is that you can change data quickly. The Framework for Teaching ICT divides ICT into the following areas:

1. Finding things out

  • Be systematic in considering the information you need and how you will use it
  • How to obtain information
  • How to collect, enter, analyse and evaluate quantitative data

2. Developing ideas and making things happen

  • To develop and explore information, solve problems and derive new information
  • Hot to measure, record, respond to and control events
  • How to test predictions, discover patterns and relationships by exploring, evaluating and developing models and changing their rules and values
  • Recognise where groups of instructions need repeating

3. Exchanging and sharing information

  • How to interpret information and to reorganise and present it in a variety of forms.

The Numeracy Strategy identifies that data handling is made up of the following features:

Mysteries downloaded from:

  • Collecting
  • Organising
  • Classifying
  • Storing
  • Interrogating
  • Analysing
  • Processing
  • Interpreting
  • Graphing and presenting

Mysteries downloaded from:

Mysteries downloaded from:

So, together ICT can help with data handling through:

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  • Quick editing of data
  • Quick and accurate re-ordering of data
  • Searching for data
  • Constructing graphs of data
  • Storage of large amounts of data
  • Changing the appearance of the data
  • Repeated calculation

Mysteries downloaded from:

Issues for geography teachers

Be aware of the standards expected at the end of key stage 2 and year 7:

  • The use of specialist mathematical vocabulary should be built into geography Schemes of Work and lesson plans.
  • The focus in geography lessons may be on the result of a calculation rather than on the process of the calculation, e.g. there may be occasions where it is not necessary to know how to work out the data as in a complex simulation.
  • Additional time may need to be spent to ensure that some calculations are fully understood, e.g. for population density or scale.
  • Be able to provide some reminders of basic mental and written methods for calculations using the method with which pupils are familiar (for expel, by having a mathematics resource with formulae in your geography room).
  • Co-operation with the mathematics department over topics that overlap with geography, e.g. teaching grids, latitude/longitude and data collection during field work (joint field studies).
  • Think about assessing the calculations and presenting data with the ICT and Numeracy Frameworks.

Software for numeracy includes:

  • Spreadsheet (generic)
  • Data base (generic)
  • Mapping package (GIS)
  • Specialist data recording, processing and presenting
  • Information CD-Rom (with data), e.g. CD-atlas, CD-encyclopaedia
  • Internet for data research.
Numeracy and geography - illustrative teaching programme for year 7
Numeracy programme / Geography ICT examples
Numbers and the number system
  • Place, value, ordering and rounding
  • Properties and numbers
  • Fractions, decimals, percentages, ration and proportion
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  • Enter climatic data in a spreadsheet, using decimals for temperature
  • List data and rank in order, e.g. employment data in a table on a word processing package
  • Work out values for a map key to map data, e.g. in a spreadsheet, mapping or drawing package (e.g. Scamp Census data)
  • Use scale in a mapping package, e.g. Local Studies CD-Rom

Calculations
  • Number operations and the relationship between them
  • Mental methods and rapid recall of number facts
  • Written methods
  • Calculator methods
  • Checking results
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  • Calculations of population density either mentally or in a spreadsheet using a formula
  • Work out real distances from scale distances on maps, e.g. from a mapping package
  • Use the calculator (in accessories) to work out totals in a ranking exercise, e.g. to find the best site for a supermarket

Solving problems
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  • Predict best locations, e.g. modelling industrial location using a spreadsheet
  • Work out results of decisions (simulation), e.g. planning farm land use (Brookfield Farm CD-Rom)

Algebra
  • Equations and formulae
  • Sequences and functions
  • Graphs
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  • Use formulae in a spreadsheet to work out averages (means) from a weather data logger
  • Use of a spreadsheet/database to draw graphs, e.g. of a land use survey
  • Choice of appropriate types of graph from a spreadsheet to represent geographical data, e.g. to show population change over time or responses to questionnaires

Shape, space and measures
  • Lines and angles
  • Properties and shapes
  • Transformations
  • Co-ordinates
  • Construction
  • Measures
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  • Use a GIS package to measure distance and area
  • Use a mapping package to learn about co-ordinates (OS grids and latitude and longitude), e.g. Mastering Mapwork CD-Rom
  • Use a drawing package to present 3D images, e.g. contour patterns

Handling data
  • Specifying a problem
  • Planning and collecting data
  • Processing data
  • Representing data and interpreting and discussing results
  • Probability
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  • Enquiry work that collects raw data, e.g. of river flow and enters it in a spreadsheet or specialist data collecting package (CD-Rom)
  • Process and present raw data using statistics and graphing functions in a spreadsheet
  • Information research from a CD-Rom or the internet to interpret data
  • Presenting quantitative data on maps, e.g. in a spreadsheet using the mapping function

Mysteries downloaded from: