Unit 3 Project: Data Representation

              The environment impact that I chose was electrical consumption. I am choosing this one because for me, I think it's very easy and efficient than the others. Using electricity in a long period of time can have a huge impact on our society and our planet. Generally, burning fossil fuels like coal, natural gas and so on produces electricity. Electricity can be created from dams, and rivers that don't really create harmful emissions. But burning fossil fuels to make electricity yields carbon dioxide and other emissions, which then get stacked in the greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. If there is too much greenhouse gas, there will be global warning and it could create open "holes" in the atmosphere, which could let the sun radiation harm you.

                 My family's habits aren't as that bad as other people as we don't use that much air conditioner, and we don't really watch that much of television. For my brother and I, we use electricity to play video games on the weekend for around 2 hours every week. We only consume about 50 kilowatts on an average basis of 2 hours, which plays around 8% of the total amount of kilowatts that our family had consumed. Other than that, our electricity habits are using our computers, using fans, watching television, turning on lights, and so on. This habit also applies to our parents although they do more work using electricity, they don't play any videogames, they use cooking appliances, and so on. The amount of energy used by doing school homework differs depending on how much homework we have. On some days when I get lots of homework, I spend more than 3 hours working on my computer. But normally, I would work about an hour and a half and so far in this month, our family has consumed around 132Kwh. According to my data, in a month my family has consumed around 636 Kwh. I think that this is quite low as other people's average consumption might even be in the thousands! Some things that my family can change are really turning off the fan if it is on. In several occasions, in the living room, the fan is on but nobody turns it off but me. I just go and check all the fans so that if it is on, I can turn it off and make a difference. Also another thing to change is to turn off the computer at night or if nobody uses it. Once, when my family was coming back from Singapore form a 3-day holiday, we saw the computer on when we came back and we were extremely shocked. The difference between the amount of electricity used by fans vs. my air conditioner is 164 Kwh. Since our family uses fans more than air conditioners, I am not surprised that the difference is huge. The fans were used around 300Kwh and the air conditioners were used 136Kwh. Our family uses about 1 air conditioner at least a month, as we have to put it on at least 4 hours on a week. They are set at least from 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit, as the room that the air conditioner is in has to be cool so that when my teachers come to my house to teach me, they can feel the good breeze and air. If guests come, we normally turn on about 3 air conditioners at a lower temperature like 21 degrees Celsius as it is our job to make the guests comfortable as possible.

                 The family project that I will use is to when we are sleeping, we can set a timer for the fan so that the fan won't be on until next morning when we get unconscious, to turn off any electronics that is left on when we're going on a trip, being sure to unplug machines as they have stand-by functions that consume energy even though they are turned off, keeping doors or windows shut when the air conditioner is on, turning off the water when I am brushing my teeth because it will not only save water but it will also save the electricity it takes to pump and heat the water, and so on. By setting a timer for the fan around 3 hours, it can save electricity by automatically turning itself off. Although our family uses the fans at full maximum power, we can save time so that we can cut down on our energy consumption. According to the manager of my apartment, our apartment has around 223 air conditioners including the management office. The air conditioners are used around 5 times a week and are turned on 34 hours in a day. They are not used at night in all of the bedrooms, as there are more fans than air conditioners in our apartment.

Table:

          Line Graph:






Bar Graph:




Fourth Paragraph:

           In my graphs, the main change is that as 3 months goes by, the amount of KwH consumed decreases significantly. From August to September, it had the biggest decrease of around 100 KwH as the amount of KwH on the first month was just below 650 whereas for the KwH for September, it was around 550. From September to October, the decrease was around 50KwH as if you subtract 550 to 500, it equals to 50. If you look closely to the line graph, you should see a trend more visually than the bar graph although both of these best show data comparisons. Reflecting on successful as our family is doing a good job on decreasing the amount of KwH by carrying out small acts such as simply turning off the lights.  On August, the amount of time spent on video gaming and watching Television for all of my family members was shortened as nowadays my brother and I are starting to focus on our academic studies more. Also, before this project, my parents made a rule which was the maximum amount of time spent on video games is 90 minutes per person on a day. This rule was working very well on making my brother and I save energy as we limit our game time. There is room for improvement, as our family needs to be cautious of how long electronics last such as fans, air conditioners, and so forth. Although we are doing a great job following our plans, there are some occasions were we leave the timer for the fan off which makes the fan keep spinning when we wake up in the morning. Normally, my family would turn the timer on by 4 hours but if you leave it all day, extra 5 hours of electricity is “wasted” which is unnecessary as I shower in the morning which gets rid of the sweat. To become more successful next month, I don’t really think that visual aids are necessary for my family as it’s just simple things such as leaving the lights on that are really wasting electricity although as a reminder of who is the patrol for which month, I have pasted a paper on the front of the house to make everyone in my family see it clearly. What I have done is everyday at least once before going to sleep, someone has to volunteer to become a patrol to see if any electronic appliances are left on so that they can shut it down and decrease the amount of KwH my family uses. Another way that could save my family’s electrical consumption is to follow the yearlong plan created in September. Closing the doors when the air conditioner is on, turning off the water when someone brushes their teeth and other ways can contribute to the “decrease” that I am hoping will continue on. It only takes a minute to look around the house to see if any electronic device is left on so this way looks like it could decrease the consumption of electricity. I don’t really think my progress, the plans for the year-long project is working very that my family needs to change my plan to decrease the usage as it so far is working. My family understands this plan and is trying to follow it when they can which is a great sign. If you look at the graphs, the amount of KwH is decreasing every month, which is because of my family members following this plan. Anyhow, reflecting on the 3 months of gathering data, my family so far is decreasing the amount of KwH we consume in a month, which is not only saving the environment, but our economic finances too.

Unit 3: Data Representation

 

This is a picture of myself playing Jeopardy. If you look closely at the white board, I have shown my work very thoroughly by going through step and step in order to win some points.

Why do people collect and tabulate data?

People collect and tabulate data for many different purposes. Some of the reasons vary for different people as for companies, they gather and arrange data to find people who can fill in their positions whereas for the government, they use data to see what the size of the population is, find out what to use their money with such as spending on health care, schools, and other important things. Companies would search for people who have the potential to make their business better and then show data through graphs that show that the salary for the average worker in this company in order to persuade him/her to join. For the government, they would use the data and visually represent it by charts and graphs so that they have a clear idea of the size of the population in a certain place. They arrange and gather data in order to see what they can do to stabilize their population. All of these two examples share one same thing. They all collect and tabulate data to make decisive decisions. Also, people tabulate data to put it into an easier form to read and show statistics. For example, car insurance companies arrange data to see the amount of accidents by each age group and show the risks with each category and therefore make decisions such as charging the people higher rates. 

Let's say that this bar graph was created by a car insurance company referring to their data. As you can see, the interval 16-19 has the biggest deaths so the company could make a decision to charge the people from 16-19 years old more in order to make profits and have a good business. To conclude, people gather and arrange data in order to make decisions and to show statistics in an easier way.

Source: http://www.raisethehammer.org/static/images/chart_deaths_per_billion_km_travelled_by_age.jpg

Original 3 Paragraphs:

                  The environment impact that I chose was electrical consumption. I am choosing this one because for me, I think it's very easy and efficient than the others. Using electricity in a long period of time can have a huge impact on our society and our planet. Generally, burning fossil fuels like coal, natural gas and so on produces electricity. Electricity can be created from dams, and rivers that don't really create harmful emissions. But burning fossil fuels to make electricity yields carbon dioxide and other emissions, which then get stacked in the greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. If there is too much greenhouse gas, there will be global warning and it could create open "holes" in the atmosphere, which could let the sun radiation harm you.

                  My family's habits aren't as that bad as other people as we don't use that much air conditioner, and we don't really watch that much of television. For my brother and I, we use electricity to play video games on the weekend for around 2 hours every week. We only consume about 50 kilowatts on an average basis of 2 hours, which plays around 8% of the total amount of kilowatts that our family had consumed. Other than that, our electricity habits are using our computers, using fans, watching television, turning on lights, and so on. This habit also applies to our parents although they do more work using electricity, they don't play any video games, they use cooking appliances, and so on. The amount of energy used by doing school homework differs depending on how much homework we have. On some days when I get lots of homework, I spend more than 3 hours working on my computer. But normally, I would work about an hour and a half and so far in this month, our family has consumed around 132Kwh. According to my data, in a month my family has consumed around 636 Kwh. I think that this is quite low as other people's average consumption might even be in the thousands! Some things that my family can change are really turning off the fan if it is on. In several occasions, in the living room, the fan is on but nobody turns it off but me. I just go and check all the fans so that if it is on, I can turn it off and make a difference. Also another thing to change is to turn off the computer at night or if nobody uses it. Once, when my family was coming back from Singapore form a 3-day holiday, we saw the computer on when we came back and we were extremely shocked. The difference between the amount of electricity used by fans vs. my air conditioner is 164 Kwh. Since our family uses fans more than air conditioners, I am not surprised that the difference is huge. The fans were used around 300Kwh and the air conditioners were used 136Kwh. Our family uses about 1 air conditioner at least a month, as we have to put it on at least 4 hours on a week. They are set at least from 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit, as the room that the air conditioner is in has to be cool so that when my teachers come to my house to teach me, they can feel the good breeze and air. If guests come, we normally turn on about 3 air conditioners at a lower temperature like 21 degrees Celsius as it is our job to make the guests comfortable as possible.

                  The family project that I will use is to when we are sleeping, we can set a timer for the fan so that the fan won't be on until next morning when we get unconscious, to turn off any electronics that is left on when we're going on a trip, being sure to unplug machines as they have stand-by functions that consume energy even though they are turned off, keeping doors or windows shut when the air conditioner is on, turning off the water when I am brushing my teeth because it will not only save water but it will also save the electricity it takes to pump and heat the water, and so on. By setting a timer for the fan around 3 hours, it can save electricity by automatically turning itself off. Although our family uses the fans at full maximum power, we can save time so that we can cut down on our energy consumption. According to the manager of my apartment, our apartment has around 223 air conditioners including the management office. The air conditioners are used around 5 times a week and are turned on 34 hours in a day. They are not used at night in all of the bedrooms, as there are more fans than air conditioners in our apartment.

Table:
Graphs:

Line Graph:

Bar Graph

4th Paragraph:

             In my graphs, the main change is that as 3 months goes by, the amount of KwH consumed decreases significantly. From August to September, it had the biggest decrease of around 100 KwH as the amount of KwH on the first month was just below 650 whereas for the KwH for September, it was around 550. From September to October, the decrease was around 50KwH as if you subtract 550 to 500, it equals to 50. If you look closely to the line graph, you should see a trend more visually than the bar graph although both of these best show data comparisons. Reflecting on successful as our family is doing a good job on decreasing the amount of KwH by carrying out small acts such as simply turning off the lights.  On August, the amount of time spent on video gaming and watching Television for all of my family members was shortened as nowadays my brother and I are starting to focus on our academic studies more. Also, before this project, my parents made a rule which was the maximum amount of time spent on video games is 90 minutes per person on a day. This rule was working very well on making my brother and I save energy as we limit our game time. There is room for improvement, as our family needs to be cautious of how long electronics last such as fans, air conditioners, and so forth. Although we are doing a great job following our plans, there are some occasions were we leave the timer for the fan off which makes the fan keep spinning when we wake up in the morning. Normally, my family would turn the timer on by 4 hours but if you leave it all day, extra 5 hours of electricity is “wasted” which is unnecessary as I shower in the morning which gets rid of the sweat. To become more successful next month, I don’t really think that visual aids are necessary for my family as it’s just simple things such as leaving the lights on that are really wasting electricity although as a reminder of who is the patrol for which month, I have pasted a paper on the front of the house to make everyone in my family see it clearly. What I have done is everyday at least once before going to sleep, someone has to volunteer to become a patrol to see if any electronic appliances are left on so that they can shut it down and decrease the amount of KwH my family uses. Another way that could save my family’s electrical consumption is to follow the yearlong plan created in September. Closing the doors when the air conditioner is on, turning off the water when someone brushes their teeth and other ways can contribute to the “decrease” that I am hoping will continue on. It only takes a minute to look around the house to see if any electronic device is left on so this way looks like it could decrease the consumption of electricity. I don’t really think my progress, the plans for the year-long project is working very that my family needs to change my plan to decrease the usage as it so far is working. My family understands this plan and is trying to follow it when they can which is a great sign. If you look at the graphs, the amount of KwH is decreasing every month, which is because of my family members following this plan. Anyhow, reflecting on the 3 months of gathering data, my family so far is decreasing the amount of KwH we consume in a month, which is not only saving the environment, but our economic finances too.

How "Living Ethically" is Demonstrated in the Unit 3 Project

This project demonstrates "living ethically" as we had to think about solutions to decrease the amount of KwH, and to perform them and create graphs to show if there is any room to lower down the consumption of electricity. One of the tasks for this unit 3 project was to add onto or adjust the plan that we had to create in the beginning of the year. This made me think "ethically" as I had to think of ideas which could not only save the environment but also save my family's economic finances. For example, the whole purpose of this project was to "live ethically" and it had made me communicate to my family members about my ideas about a plan such as a patrol to see if any electronic appliances are turned on. In order to succeed on creating a good quality for the project, we had to gather numerical facts about my family's electricity consumption and it made me realize that my family should contribute to save electricity which is created by mostly fossil fuels burnt. We had to use the numerical data such as the amount of KwH consumed on a specific month and create a line graph and another graph. For me, I chose a bar graph as the line graph and a bar graph can be used to easily make comparisons as they are visual. By referring to my graph, I can see that every month, the electrical consumption is decreasing although I doubt that it will keep on decreasing by the end of the year. When I saw the bars on my bar graph decreasing every month, it made me think that you need to live more ethically than before by following the plans created. Creating the graphs had an effect on me personally as I could get the clear intended message for the whole project which was "living ethically". My unit 3 project shows "living ethically" in graphs and jotting down plans to save electricity.

Reflection

My MAP goal for this year is to get a higher score on the statistics & probability part. This is because the score that I received on this part was from 241-250, much more lower than all of the rest which tells me that this section needs work. From now until January when I take the MAP test again, I will use Khan Academy as a resource to do math problems and watch math tutorials online to help me out on this unit, and use the "Grade 8 Math Practice Links" and solve problems involving statistics and probability. Khan Academy will help me improve on my MAP score on statistics & probability as I can learn anything from almost free. Khan Academy offers many practice questions from easy to hard which will challenge me. If you search up on Khan Academy 'probability', immediately there are search results that lead to problems, and videos about statistics and probability. Another great site which will support me to increase my understanding of "statistics and probability" would be in Moodle. At Moodle, there is a site listed called MAPS Goals Websites. In this site, there are almost all of the components in math listed with several resources and problems for you to solve. This site will be a great tool to help me work on my goal as if you scroll down the page to "statistics and probability" listed in the first column, beside that are different levels, categorized from easy to advanced. I can test myself by going through each problems from the first level to the end. I know that there are lots of other sites listed in Moodle that can help me reach my goal although I think that Khan Academy and the MAPS Goals Websites are more valuable resources for refer to.

 

This is a picture of my group members, Justin and Jake working very hard on answering a question correctly in a game of Jeopardy.