This deep dive covers Presenting Your Data within Physical Geography Fieldwork for GCSE Geography. Revise Physical Geography Fieldwork in Fieldwork for GCSE Geography with 0 exam-style questions and 20 flashcards. This topic shows up very often in GCSE exams, so students should be able to explain it clearly, not just recognise the term. It is section 8 of 16 in this topic. Use this deep dive to connect the idea to the wider topic before moving on to questions and flashcards.
Topic position
Section 8 of 16
Practice
0 questions
Recall
20 flashcards
📊 Presenting Your Data
How you present data matters — different variables call for different graphs. Choosing the wrong graph type loses marks in the exam. Here is the standard approach for river fieldwork data:
Scatter Graphs
Use a scatter graph to show the relationship between two continuous variables — for example, distance downstream (x-axis, in km or metres) and velocity (y-axis, in m/s). Plot a line of best fit through the data. The slope and direction of the line shows you whether the relationship is positive (as x increases, y increases) or negative.
You can draw separate scatter graphs for: velocity vs distance, pebble size vs distance, pebble roundness vs distance, channel width vs distance, channel depth vs distance.
Channel Cross-Section Profiles
Draw a cross-section diagram for each site. Plot the channel width on the x-axis (in metres, starting at 0 for the left bank) and depth on the y-axis — but invert the y-axis so that deeper readings point downwards (like a river bed). Plot all your depth readings across the channel width at that site. Connect them with a smooth line to show the shape of the river bed. This allows you to visually compare how channel shape changes from one site to another.
Proportional Diagrams
A table of means for each variable at each site is essential — it summarises all your raw data into a form that can be graphed and compared directly. Always include a column for the distance of each site from the source.
Rose Diagrams / Pebble Roundness
Pebble roundness can be presented as a bar chart (x-axis = roundness category 1–6, y-axis = frequency or percentage of pebbles). Comparing bar charts between sites reveals whether roundness increases downstream as predicted.