Tematyka

  • BADGE – Becoming a Digital Global Engineer

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    Intellectual Output

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    BADGE – Becoming a Digital Global Engineer
    Project 2019-1-FR01-KA203-063010 (167 512 512)

  • Objectives

    presentation

    • After studying this unit, you will be able to …

      1. define a line graph, a vertical bar/column graph, a Gantt chart and a histogram;
      2. use the above types to represent graphical data effectively;
      3. choose from a range of basic or more sophisticated types of graphical representation to make your presentation, dissertation or papers more detailed but, at the same time, clearer for your audience.

  • Warm up questions

    questions

      1. How can data be represented graphically?
      2. What kinds of graphical representation do you use to visualize data?
      3. Do you know what the differences and similarities are between the following types of graphical representation?
        • a line graph
        • a vertical bar/ column graph
        • a Gantt chart
        • a histogram.

  • Did you know?

    • Nowadays, statistics are used in nearly all dimensions of life – e.g. science, business, economics, mass media, medicine, etc. Have you ever wondered about their history? Modern statistical charts were invented at the end of the 18th Century by the Scottish engineer and political economist William Playfair, who served as a secret agent on behalf of Great Britain during its war with France. From 1786 to 1801, a period characterized by an astonishing boom in innovation, Playfair was the founder of graphical methods of statistics and produced the first known graphical representations – the bar chart, line chart, and pie chart.

  • Reading

    • In this era of information explosion, a time in which we are inundated with data on a daily basis, data visualization can help us present data so that it is easily understood and accepted. It is essential, however, to use appropriate charts to visualize data. Graphical representation refers to the use of graphs, charts and diagrams to visually display, analyse, clarify, and interpret numerical data, functions, and other qualitative structures.

      The variety of graphical forms of data presentation allows for a synthetic presentation of the content, but it must be remembered that there is no room for understatement, ambiguity or gaps in information.

      The most common ways to graphically represent data are, as mentioned above, graphs, charts and diagrams. When you show an effective graph or chart, your report or presentation gains clarity. The question is, which kind of chart or graph should you choose? If you click on the chart option in your spreadsheet program, you are likely to be presented with many possibilities. They all look smart, but which one works best for your data, and which one for your audience? To figure that out, you need a good understanding of how graphs and charts work.

      Although visual aids come in many different forms, four of the most common types are: line graphs, bar/column graphs, pie charts (circle graphs), and Venn diagrams. Besides these, flow charts and concept mapping are also often used.

      The word chart is usually used as a catchall term for the graphical representation of data, whereas graph refers to a chart that specifically plots data along two dimensions.

      One of the graphs you will probably use most often is a line graph.
      These graphs simply use a line to connect the data points that you plot. They are most useful for showing trends and for identifying whether two variables relate to or correlate with one another.

      Another type of graph that shows relationships between and among data sets is a bar/ column graph. In this kind of graphical representation, the height of a column or the length of a bar represents the measured value: the higher or longer the bar, the greater the value. Bar graphs can be either vertical or horizontal and are known as column or vertical graphs or horizontal bar graphs, respectively. The graphical depiction of a project schedule can be done using a Gantt chart which is a visualization that helps in scheduling, managing, and monitoring specific tasks and resources in a project. It is a type of bar chart that shows the start and finish dates of several elements of a project including resources, milestones, tasks, and dependencies. This type of chart is used most often in engineering, project management or for a range of projects (such as building dams, bridges, and highways), software development, and the development of other goods and services.

      Yet another type of graphical representation, which is quite similar in appearance to a bar chart and organizes a group of data points into user-specified ranges, is a histogram. It condenses a data series into an easily interpreted visual by taking many data points and grouping them into logical ranges. Both histograms and bar charts provide a visual display using columns, and people often use the terms interchangeably. More technically, a histogram represents the frequency distribution of variables in a data set. On the other hand, a bar graph typically represents a graphical comparison of discrete or categorical variables.

      A number of differences between a bar chart and histogram can be enumerated. First of all, bar charts are used to compare different categories of data whereas the aim of a histogram is to display the distribution of a variable. In terms of the type of variables used in bar charts and histograms, categorical variables and numeric ones are used, respectively. Moreover, in a bar chart, each data point is rendered as a separate bar while in a histogram the data points are grouped and rendered based on the bind value. A further difference is the fact that bar charts have spaces between the bars, and the bars themselves can be reordered. In contrast, histograms have no spaces and reordering is not possible.

  • Activities

  • Further practice

  • Bibliography and references