Geography 226

Lab 1

1. Classify the variables below (indicate whether they are qualitative or quantitative, discrete or continuous and the level of measurement): (5 marks)

 

2. Calculate the mean and standard deviation by hand for the sample observations below. Show your calculations.  (4 Marks)

12

8

6

15

10

13

20

11

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. The table below summarizes responses to a customer satisfaction survey for a whale watching company. Calculate the relative frequency for each satisfaction category. You may express the relative frequency as a decimal or a percentage. (2)

 

4. Artisinal fishers are critically important to people around the world. In the Lao People's Democratic Republic, thousands of rural people depend on the Mekong River fish stocks for their livelihoods. In the Khong District of Champasak Province, several villages are participating in an aquatic resource co-management project. The project is described in:

Baird, I and M. Flaherty. 2000. Local Waters, International Markets: A Review of the Sustainability of a Mekong River Probarbus Fishery in Southern Laos. Bergano, Italy: CESVI.

We will use a small subset of the available data.

The following data were collected for 20 fishers in 3 villages along the Mekong River during the 1995 fishing season. The data are located in the SPSS file CATCH.SAV. The variables are:

Fisher ID: identification code assigned to each fisher
Village ID: identification code assigned to each village
Gear: type of traditional fishing gear used
Catch: total weight of fish caught in kilograms by each fisher

a) Classify the variables in the data set (1 mark)

 

 

b)     Provide the following descriptive statistics for Catch: (8)

Calculate by hand and show work:	Obtain from SPSS:
o    Median (1)       o    Mode (1)     o    Range (1)       o    Interquartile range  (3)	o    Mean (1) o    Standard deviation (1)

 

c)        Generate a histogram for the Catch data in SPSS. Sketch a curve on the histogram using SPSS and indicate  by hand on the printout where the mean, median and mode lie. Describe the shape of the distribution.  (3 marks)
 

 

 

 

d)         Which measure of central tendency and of dispersion are most appropriate for summarizing the variable Catch? Explain why. (2)

 

 

 

e)      Is it appropriate to calculate a measure of central tendency for the Gear variable? Explain why or why not.  (2)
 

 

 

5. The catch data is part of a continuing study, initiated in 1994. The mean catch per fisher for each year is presented below. Insert the mean and standard deviation that you calculated for 1995 (from question 4).

1. Calculate the overall mean catch per fisher for the five years using the weighted mean formula. Briefly explain why you must use this formula.  ( 3 marks)
    

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Calculate the coefficient of variation for each year’s catch. Which year has the most variable catch? (3 marks)