so how is it going?

Some common errors being picked up through marking your coursework

• Touchwood and High Street - note the use of capital letters.
• Remember to give all maps, graphs and photos a title and label both axes on graphs.
• Avoid crossing over arrows when annotating pictures - it just makes it look messy and confusing. Best to consider the layout before you start.
• When doing your scattergraphs - give the number of the location alongside the cross or dot on the graph - it will aid in analysis.
• Give % information when producing pie charts.
• when analysing graphs, maps etc, remember to put into words what the graphs show, quote figures or percentages (L3), give 'most', 'least' and highlight any anomalies. Suggest several reasons to explain the trend
• ALWAYS link back to your hypothesis
• Where possible make link between different sets of data. A good example of a link is pedestrian count and quality of environment / shopping survey. You get most people where there is a high score on the SQSA survey.
• LOOK at the marking grids that I gave to you. These are from the board and unless I can find the evidence under the criteria - you don't get the marks.

Have fun!!!

Mezzogiorno or rivers next week ???? Can't decide!

enquiry C help line

I can't believe how quickly the end of term has come. Thank you so much for all your efforts in completing enquiry A and B, I'm really impressed with the quality of the work that you have produced.
As promised here's the helpline for enquiry c
tudorgeography@hotmail.co.uk

Hope you all enjoy the opportunities offered at your work experience placement.

Have a fantastic summer

Mrs N

p.s. remember to take your 'geosquish' photo wherever you go. There's a £10 Touchwood voucher for the best entry.

Enquiry C – Comparative study of neighbourhood shopping centre to Solihull CBD

Aim:
In Enquiry A you looked at the ground floor land use of the CBD. To what extent would you expect a study of a neighbourhood shopping centre to be similar or different? In what ways?

Hypothesis
You might want to consider:
Type of goods purchased – convenience goods (low order) or comparison goods (high order)
Ownership – large organisation of family business
Area of shop
Shopping patterns of customers
Advantages / disadvantages of neighbourhood centre over CBD

Methods
Questionnaire
Map of ground floor land use
Photo analysis – types of shops / goods bought, quality of shopping environment

ENQUIRY C - IMPACT OF TOUCHWOOD

Aim:
To investigate the impact of Touchwood shopping centre on the rest of the CBD
To investigate what shoppers think of the new centre?

Hypothesis
1. Do you think that the rest of the CBD will have benefited from the development of Touchwood? Why?
Number of customers, marketing or advertising, increasing size of the CBD and number of businesses within it
2. Will there be a negative impact on businesses in the rest of CBD. Touchwood is new and modern and so will attract more people perhaps. Do you think the shopping quality or environment is likely to be better and thus attract more people?
3. How do people view the facilities offered by Touchwood in comparison to CBD?
4. Are people attracted to Solihull CBD more due to the development of Touchwood?
5. Does Touchwood attract larger crowds than Mell Square?
6. Has crime increased in Solihull as a result of the development of Touchwood?

Background information on Touchwood
Collect leaflets
Location
Description
Shops, leisure provision, environment- gardens, seating, lighting, sculptures etc, services, information, security
Number of shops, categorise into types of goods
Car parking provision

Table of possible positive and negative factors on other shops and impact on people in Solihull:
Shops +ve no of customers, advertising
People +ve choice of shops, better leisure provision, new jobs available, better quality shopping environment
Shops –ve less customers, more competition, lower profits, higher rents
People –ve more noise, more busy, more congestion, closure of stores / facilities

Table to show similarities and differences between Mell Square and Touchwood
Seating
cafes
pedestrianised
lighting
plants
window displays
information points
signposts,
litter bins

Methods
Questionnaires – either to shoppers or retailers?
Do you compare Touchwood to the whole of CBD or Mell Square?

1. Shoppers Questionnaire:
Distance to home?
Is Touchwood easily accessible?
Do you visit Solihull more since Touchwood has opened
On average how often do you visit Touchwood shopping centre?
Do you prefer to shop in Touchwood or elsewhere in CBD?
When you are shopping within Solihull how much time do you spend in Touchwood, Rest of Solihull
Where do you think quality of shopping is higher – Touchwood or rest of Solihull
Do you find Touchwood is a pleasant environment in which to shop?
Has Touchwood got sufficient facilities?
In your opinion has Touchwood had a positive / negative impact on the rest of Solihull?
Business Questionnaire
Has business suffered from competition in Touchwood
How has business suffered – less customers, loss of interest, business closed down
Has business improved -In what way
Has Touchwood had a positive / negative impact
Has the problem of traffic congestion in Solihull increased since Touchwood was built
Has Touchwood got a wider variety of shops
Is Touchwood visually attractive
Has the maintenance of Solihull improved as a result of Touchwood
Has Touchwood increased the number of visitors to Solihull
Is Touchwood easily accessible?
(Remember to focus questionnaire to aims and link to hypothesis)

2. Quotes from people / Newspaper articles

3. Annotated photos

4. Ground floor land use – number of shops
Are you going to use the same categories as in Enquiry A or devise other?
sports and outdoors
health and beauty
fashions
children’s toys, nursery equipment etc
books, gifts, cards etc
services
electrical and communications
jewellery
shoes and accessories
other specialist

ENQUIRY C - CAR PARKING PROVISION

Aim:
To investigate where the parking restrictions are in Solihull CBD
To investigate the various size, location and costs of car parking in Solihull
To determine whether customers perceive that the car parking facilities provided are adequate for their needs

Hypotheses
Cars will not be allowed in the centre of Solihull CBD. The main shopping area – High St will be pedestrianised. This is because the functions that are situated in these main shopping areas want to make the place as attractive to customers as possible so that they can generate as much money as possible. If no cars are allowed then the shopping area is a safer area.
There is restricted access to and within the centre of the CBD. This is because the CBD is the busiest part of a town and if transport was allowed to drive through the centre it would become very congested, more polluted and less safe
The largest car parks will be located nearer to the centre of the CBD and as you move further out the car parks will get smaller. The busiest place in the CBD is likely to be the centre where the majority of the shops are and where people work. People do not want to walk long distances from the car parks to the town centre. The priority will be to please customers and to make the shopping area as easily accessible as possible – largest car parks



Suggested methods

Blank A4 map
Note where parking is restricted to buses and taxis, where no cars were allowed at all and where parking was permitted

Secondary data – Solihull library, Council Offices, Websites
Map showing location of car parks and car parking restrictions.
List of car parks in Solihull, their size and cost

Questionnaire will prove that the car parks in Solihull are adequate for their needs, provide easy access to the shops and that there are usually plenty of spaces available. This will ensure that demands are met and that customers will be satisfied with the facilities and will return.

Questionnaire will also show that people believe that the car parks in Solihull are expensive. Prices are unlikely to be so high as to discourage people to visit. Short stay prices will be competitive to attract shoppers. Long stay car park charges may be high so as to encourage workers to seek other forms of transport for commuting to work. Car parks may be expensive as the council know that people will have no choice but to pay the price demanded. Prices might also be high to cover the price of the land in the CBD

Questionnaire
How would you rate these aspects of car parking on a scale of 1-5?
i. Access to shops from the car park (1 = easy)
ii. Price of car parking (1 = cheap)
iii. Disabled access (1 = very good)
iv. Car parking spaces (1 = plenty available)
How easy the parking metres are to use on a scale of 1 – 5 (1 = easy)
Which in your opinion, is the best car park in Solihull?
Touchwood, Sainsbury’s, Lode Lane, Poplar Way, John Lewis, other – specify

Photo analysis
Ease of access / number of lanes
Height restrictions
Multi storey
Number of spaces
Lighting
Barriers
Speed bumps
Under cover
Name
Access to shopping area
Parking restrictions on approach roads

ENQUIRY C - VERTICAL ZONING

Aim:
In Enquiry A you investigated the ground floor land use of buildings in the CBD. What use is made of the upper floors of the buildings – retail, office, residential etc?

Hypothesis
Decide on a suitable hypothesis. Examples may include ….
As you move away from the centre of the CBD there is a reduction in the number of storeys in a building.
There will be more commercial use of the upper floors of buildings towards the centre of the CBD
Any residential use of the upper storeys will be found towards the outskirts of the CBD


Suggested methods
Mapping – take the classification table used in enquiry A and use it to map the use of first floor of buildings. Repeat the technique for subsequent storeys.

Annotated photographs to show vertical zoning both within the CBD and towards the outskirts and any possible changes.

the format for enquiry C will be the same as A and B:
aim
hypothesis
method
data collection
data presentation
data interpretation
conclusion
evaluation

being organised

LRC is booked as follows:
Weds 18.06.08
Thurs 19.06.08
Weds 02.07.08
Thurs 03.07.08

26.06.08 - working in L24
27.6.08 - working in L24

5. Typical shopper profile

From the questionnaire that was carried out, produce a profile of a typical shopper in the CBD. Select a suitable picture from clip art and label it according to your findings. e.g. a typical shopper travelled less than 15 minutes, is here to buy comparison goods, thinks that the CBD is very attractive and the range of goods is excellent etc.

4. Questionaire Graphs

4. Pedestrian count - proportional circles

A3 map with– proportional arrows or circles

3. Scattergraphs

You will need to produce two scattergraphs

1. To show correlation between distance from CBD (Mell Sq?) and overall shopping quality score for each site
2. To show any correlation between distance from CBD and pedestrian count

You may wish to carry out a spearman rank correlation to test any significance in the relation between the variables.

Make sure graphs have a title, axes are labelled and that there is a line of best fit drawn with a ruler

3. Shopping quality and street appearance survey

1. Firstly produce a table which shows the scores for shopping quality and street appearance for each site

2. Draw small bar graphs which show the scores for shopping quality and street appearance for each of your 10 locations. Make sure you use the same colour for each category at different locations to enable comparisons.
These bar charts will enable you to:
compare shopping quality at each site
compare street appearance at each site
compare overall score for each site

3. Now stick each of the individual bar charts on an A3 map at the location where the survey was carried out.

Make sure map has a title and a key
This A3 map will count as one of your complex skills

2. Photo analysis - Enq B

2. Photo analysis
This techniques could be used to show quality of shopping environment, street appearance, shopping quality etc. You could include small location map on the same page and written analysis. Make sure labels are DETAILED

Photos could have:
Tracing overlays with added details / annotations
Different coloured arrows highlighting different aspects
Coloured dots with a key reflecting different aspects e.g.

· paving quality
· eye catching window displays
· floral displays
· litter bins
· entrances
· surveillance / safety
· shop fronts
· displays
· signs / advertising
· vertical
· zoning

DATA PRESENTATION ENQ B

Firstly on either an A3 or A4 Map show the 10 sites chosen for street survey and pedestrian count – could use dots / stars.

EVALUATION - Enquiry A

Was the base map accurate?
Were there any problems with using the classification table? …. Charity shops, Sainsbury’s
Have you collected enough data?
Were there any problems in collecting the data?
What were the disadvantages of the techniques selected?
Map …. out of date? change of building shape?
Photographs … open to interpretation?
How could you improve data collection
Were other members of your group reliable?

Did the data collection cover the whole of Solihull area?
What could you do to improve methods - accuracy?
What needs to be done to increase reliability of methods used – day, time, sampling methods?
How accurate are results?
What could be done to improve accuracy?
How valid are your conclusions?
Which results support hypotheses – why?
Which results reject hypotheses – why?

Why might your conclusions be invalid or wrong?
Can you link any weakness in your conclusions to the results or methodology?
What improvements could be made to the enquiry to increase the validity of conclusions?

CONCLUSION – ENQUIRY A

Did you prove or disprove your hypotheses? Relate conclusions to original hypothesis.
Which research or data analysis enabled you to prove your hypothesis?
Refer specifically to the maps / graphs
Link to geographical understanding

3. Analysis of individual land use A4 maps and photograph

Is the type of land use spread across the CBD?
Is it clustered at all?
Look at the photo
· Location of land use
· What is it that attracts people to this land use?
· Why is it located in the CBD?
· How can it afford to exist in the CBD?

2. Analysis of base map divided into squares, table and graph

Where is the clustering located?
Clustering – how big is the area?
What land uses display clustering
What is the % of the total area of the CBD

Explanation:
Accessibility
Competition

1. Analysis of ground floor plan - Enq A

The base map and key show the ground floor land uses in Solihull CBD
You can see which are the most common land uses A - P Which are the top three?
You can see the total number of each of the different categories of ground floor land uses

What are the reasons for the most common land uses?
Competition for land
Accessibility – customers able to reach
much sought after location
high land values - only shops with high turnover and profitability can afford CBD locations.

What is the dominant ground floor land use?
1. Was it specialist shops?
In the CBD there are a wide variety of specialist shops….. book, electrical, hardware, sport, antique shops, jewellers, florists
Specialist shops are located across the CBD … they are different to each other and they are important within the CBD

Explanation…..
CBD is accessible part of the town
Most sought after
Prepared to pay higher land rents to locate centrally because it is important for customers to be able to reach them.
Specialist shops make high profits therefore they are able to afford the high land prices in the CBD

2. Clothing and shoe shops
This land use category shows evidence of clustering as it is mainly located….
Explanation …..
e.g. This is because the shops are selling similar goods and are clustered together to make it easier for the customer to access and so that the shops can compete against each other.
etc.

3. Professional Services and offices – banks, solicitors, architects, doctors, estate agents, doctors, estate agents, opticians, chemists, accountants. Located in CBD as
most accessible part of town
attract a lot of customers
profits
afford the high land prices


Is there any evidence of clustering?
Explanation …..
Selling comparison goods
Customers wish to shop around for different products

From looking at tally chart, bar chart and map are there any land uses not found in the CBD – why?
Not enough space
Land values too high
Pollution
Congestion – adds to transport costs

DATA INTERPRETATION - ENQUIRY A

Describe = put into words what the results show

Analyse = try to explain and give reasons for the patterns shown by the results.

Demonstrate links between the data
Discuss the implications that one set of data might have on another
Relate the analysis to the theory you described and explained earlier – i.e. CBD characteristics

Draw valid conclusions that relate back to the original hypothesis
Summarise results and reach some decision or judgement that relates to the hypothesis
Give reasons for accepting or rejecting each hypothesis


Refer specifically to the data by referring to particular page numbers
Have you made specific numerical references to your data.
Make references to graphs, diagrams etc.