Crater Data
This activity encourages pupils to analyse a number of datasets that list the position and size of craters found in each of the four quadrants of the Moon's surface that faces Earth.
The activity is suitable for Year 9 as an introduction to the type of coursework they may be required to do for the Data Handling Project at GCSE level.
| Resources required |
The crater data for the four Moon quadrants:
A detailed image of the Moon's surface for demonstration purposes can be found HERE.
A spreadsheet package such as EXCEL.
| Content |
- Pupils can first be shown a map of the moon showing some of the craters found on the surface.
- There can be a short discussion of what scientists believe caused these
craters. This should include how their shapes may vary but are generally
circular and for this assignment the data is given making the assumption
that they are roughly circular. Only one piece of data is therefore
needed, the diameter of the crater.
The data itself is limited to craters over 10km so does not give the full picture of how many craters are on the moon.
- Introduce the following hypothesis, relating to large crater distributions,
which is to be tested during the data analysis.
Hypothesis Craters cover the surface of the moon. They are caused by random meteor hits, so they should be evenly distributed across the four quadrants of the moon.
- Discuss the limitations of the project that will be included in pupils' projects.
- Allow pupils to select two quadrant's data to compare, possibly the NW and SE as these are the smallest and largest sets of data.
- Pupils can then display the data for the two quadrants in various ways including:
- Stem and Leaf diagrams
These could be used to organise the data allowing pupils to easily view the distributions using a back to back stem and leaf diagram.
From the diagrams the Median, Mode, Modal class and Mean can be calculated together with the range of the two data sets. - Box and Whisker plots
By calculating the Lower and Upper quartiles, box plots can be constructed to give a representation of the location and spread of the data.
- Stem and Leaf diagrams
- Pupils can then use the information collected to compare the two quadrants to see if there is a significant difference in the range and spread of craters or if their hypothesis was indeed correct.
| Keywords |
Statistics, diameter, mean, median, interquartile range
| Teachers' Notes |
- With more able pupils the task could be extended by considering the data for all 4 quadrants separately and collectively to obtain overall averages involving mean of grouped data and median and interquartile range using a cumulative frequency curve.
- Obviously the data can be handled and displayed in many other ways and it is possible to develop other pupil activities according to ability and prior knowledge.
- The following pupil worksheet can be used in conjunction with this activity.
