Please read the brief attached.
Requirements: 1000
Assessment task 3: A Data Story.
The written report is an individual assessment task, with two formative assessments (Checkpoints) in groups.
This task addresses subject learning objectives 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
Description of the task: This task requires you to analyse data to tell a story that is of personal or professional interest to you. You will apply the statistical and communication skills developed in the class sessions to the dataset, to tell a story about that data. The purpose of this activity is to give you experience in why and how to find data, how to analyse collected data and how to use the data to tell a story. You should draw conclusions based on analysis of your data. We will provide examples of data stories, and you may find additional authentic examples at the subject’s Diigo site https://groups.diigo.com/group/uts-aei/content/tag/data-story You will find data and analyse it to tell a story.
To complete the article you should also research and consider external/independent sources of information on the same theme as your data (e.g. news reports or journal articles). You should then compare and contrast your data, with the external/independent information. You will submit a written article which will be assessed along with an Excel file which has your original data, calculations and graphs.
Written report structure
Length: Suggested length is about 1000 words for students in 36200 and about 1300 words for students in 36201. This is not a word limit – it is a suggested length. Longer reports that do not ramble but are well structured and succinct are acceptable. Writing that has repetition, and long unclear sentences will not be rewarded. Make sure you use the correct structure for the current semester. The task is expected to take you about 5 hours to complete if aiming at a Pass standard.
Please use these headings for your report. We encourage you to write in the first person.
Title: An appropriate title that sells your pitch for the data. A good title summarises the data story. Good practice is to have a working title and then change it later if necessary.
Introduction
What is the significance of the data story? Do not assume the reader knows anything about your topic. The intended audience is the general public. What question(s) are you trying to address? (Note that “data” is a plural noun but in everyday use it is often regarded as a singular noun.)
Describe the data source
What is the source of the original data? What did you do to clean it? Did you add additional rows/columns or select rows/columns from a larger set? In your Excel document all variables should be summarised and calculations/formulas apparent. For a higher mark see the marking rubric.
Summarise the data to discover trends
Put tables that include the five number summary and summary statistics for the variables that you added to the dataset. Comment on what they tell you about the data. Make appropriate graphs and comment on any trends.
Compare sets within the data to discover relationships between variables
Use the categorical data to group the data into subsets, that you then compare graphically for selected
quantitative variables with side-by-side box plots and/or other appropriate graphs. Comment on what that tells you. If appropriate, make scatter plots and calculate correlation coefficients. Refer to the marking rubric for guidance. Note that the charts mentioned in the marking rubric are the ones in your Word document. Refer to the marking rubric to see what is expected for each mark.
Compare any significant observations to articles written about the same topic.
Remember to cite and reference any sources. These may be news reports or professional journal articles, government reports etc.
Reflections on the feedback you received from Checkpoint 2 (Progress Report), and on the Group Work
Explain how you responded to suggestions made in the feedback you received about your Progress Report. Also reflect on the Group Work – what worked well, what did not? What did you learn about working in groups?
Comment on the limitations of your data story.
What is missing? What could you do to improve the datastory? Do you have enough data to be confident of any conclusions?
Conclusion A short conclusion brings everything together.
References: These are listed in APA Style and in alphabetical order by author, on a separate page of your Word document. See Canvas pages and the UTS Library website for guidance.
Finding data
To find datasets on ANY topic, search on “Topic.xls” or “Topic.csv” or “Topic.dat”
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has data sets on a wide range of topics.
The CIA Factbook has data on many aspects of different countries.
For example, by choosing a few clicks, you can get this page on population which has a button to download the data as a .csv file.
The Visual Capitalist site has many data visualisations, and most of them have links to the original data. Please be aware that you must make your own graphs from data.
For data on indigenous perspectives, look at the Australian Human Rights Commission and the ABS.
To find data sets on Australian Agriculture, look at
For example, you can find data quickly on different years at
State governments in Australia (as well as the federal government), often have easily searchable websites for data, e.g.
Data Commons aggregates data from a wide range of sources into a unified database to make it more accessible and useful. Explore by graph then download the data and make your own graphs.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare:
Data World is a huge resource. You can get a quick overview of data.world with this video:
Our World in Data
NAPLAN
New Zealand health etc
Health in Australia
Inside Air BnB
Gapminder – many data sets by countries of the world on various metrics
Google Data Commons
University of California, Irvine. Center for Machine Learning and Intelligent Systems. This is repository of datasets
This UCI Machine Learning needs two more steps as shown in this Youtube video. The data will be downloaded in the .data format and then we have to save it as .csv file to extract data into the excel.
How will the Written Report be marked?
The markers will read your written report online and will choose which category fits for each of the criteria for this task. The criteria will be weighted as indicated.
Marking rubric for Checkpoint 1:
This will be distributed with the actual task on the day when Checkpoint 1 is done with your team in tutorials.
(9 October). It is 10% of your total mark in this subject.
Marking rubric for the Checkpoint 2 Progress Reports:
This is marked by your peers and moderated by your tutor. Your tutor may also deduct marks if you do not provide feedback to at least six of your peers and/or you go over time. (5 minutes). It is 10% of your total mark in this subject.
9 or 10 marks for an excellent presentation, an engaging introduction to an interesting data story
7 or 8 marks for a very good presentation, clear and easy to follow
5 or 6 marks for a good presentation, maybe with some gaps or parts that were difficult to follow
4, 3, 2, or 1 for an inadequate, underprepared presentation
0 if no presentation is made
Written report structure
Length: Suggested length is about 1000 words for students in 36200 and about 1300 words for students in 36201. This is not a word limit – it is a suggested length. Longer reports that do not ramble but are well structured and succinct are acceptable. Writing that has repetition, and long unclear sentences will not be rewarded. Make sure you use the correct structure for the current semester. The task is expected to take you about 5 hours to complete if aiming at a Pass standard.
Please use these headings for your report. We encourage you to write in the first person.
Title: An appropriate title that sells your pitch for the data. A good title summarises the data story. Good practice is to have a working title and then change it later if necessary.
Introduction
What is the significance of the data story? Do not assume the reader knows anything about your topic. The intended audience is the general public. What question(s) are you trying to address? (Note that “data” is a plural noun but in everyday use it is often regarded as a singular noun.)
Describe the data source
What is the source of the original data? What did you do to clean it? Did you add additional rows/columns or select rows/columns from a larger set? In your Excel document all variables should be summarised and calculations/formulas apparent. For a higher mark see the marking rubric.
Summarise the data to discover trends
Put tables that include the five number summary and summary statistics for the variables that you added to the dataset. Comment on what they tell you about the data. Make appropriate graphs and comment on any trends.
Compare sets within the data to discover relationships between variables
Use the categorical data to group the data into subsets, that you then compare graphically for selected
quantitative variables with side-by-side box plots and/or other appropriate graphs. Comment on what that tells you. If appropriate, make scatter plots and calculate correlation coefficients. Refer to the marking rubric for guidance. Note that the charts mentioned in the marking rubric are the ones in your Word document. Refer to the marking rubric to see what is expected for each mark.
Compare any significant observations to articles written about the same topic.
Remember to cite and reference any sources. These may be news reports or professional journal articles, government reports etc.
Reflections on the feedback you received from Checkpoint 2 (Progress Report), and on the Group Work
Explain how you responded to suggestions made in the feedback you received about your Progress Report. Also reflect on the Group Work – what worked well, what did not? What did you learn about working in groups?
Comment on the limitations of your data story.
What is missing? What could you do to improve the datastory? Do you have enough data to be confident of any conclusions?
Conclusion A short conclusion brings everything together.
References: These are listed in APA Style and in alphabetical order by author, on a separate page of your Word document. See Canvas pages and the UTS Library website for guidance.
How will the Written Report be marked?
The markers will read your written report online and will choose which category fits for each of the criteria for this task. The criteria will be weighted as indicated.