Analysing Data in Year 12 Science Extension

Our Science Extension students are focusing on analysing and interpreting qualitative and quantitative data to provide evidence to support or refute their hypotheses. The students developed their own research question to analyse qualitative image data in class this week. Their research question, “What is the difference in visual perception of men’s and women’s roles in science as seen in images from the internet?”, required them to learn how to develop and conduct a content analysis via coding. As part of performing this collaborative analysis, they discussed how the data can be biased by the preconceptions of those performing the coding, lack of clarity in coding guidelines and individual interpretations of images. The students also examined how citizen science projects, such as Galaxyzoo, use a structured coding program to analyse image data from Hawaii-Two-0 survey.

– Felicity Cassidy
Science Teacher