Secondary data

Complete a Google image search for your local town or city… and then discuss whether the results are representative. For example:

• Is it always this quiet?
• Are all the buildings historic and ‘pretty’?
• Is there really no graffiti, litter or traffic congestion?
• Is the weather always this nice?
• Who took the pictures, did they just take one in each location?
• Who chose which images to share? How did these reach the top of the Google charts?

Divide the class into groups and direct each group to take images of the local area (this can even be done at a school grounds scale) as they walk through it which match the card that they have been given, examples include those to the left.

Note that they are opposites or near opposites. The point is that sets of photographs can be taken that show very different characteristics of a place and then a decision is made as to which sets are shared.

Should they all be shared? If so, should there be an equal number in each set? Which are more representative?

For those cards such as ‘attractive’ and ‘unattractive’ can it be said that ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ in other words there is bias of choice, both when images are captured and again when they are shared?

Which images (sets of images) will we share – what does it depend on?

Back to Investigating secondary data menu

The Geographical Association (GA) has worked closely with the Field Studies Council (FSC) to develop these resources.