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Controlled Assessment: The Geographical
Enquiry
The diversity and range of service provision is variable
Introduction
Your job in this enquiry will be to test the above hypothesis. Your work should include a range ofprimary and secondary data. Ideas and websites to help you with some of the key ideas and theorieson this topic are listed below. Some of the suggested sites will also enable you to collect data thatcan be used as part of your investigation. It will be helpful if you look at two geographically separate areas as part of your enquiry. You willneed to consider how service provision varies from one place to another. An obvious place to beginwould be to look at a place that has fairly significant service provision, such as the central businessdistrict (CBD) of a town (or even a city, if you live close to one). The notion of what the CBDactually is receives coverage at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_business_district and, fromanother perspective, at www.scalloway.org.uk/sett12.htm The CBD is also examined from a geographical perspective here: www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/bitesize/higher/geography/human/urban1_rev.shtml It may be that you decide to compare elements of service provision in different parts of the CBD(core or frame), or that you decide to compare service provision in the CBD with other areasoutside of the urban core – for instance, the inner city or suburbs. As well as the broad hypothesis being ‘The diversity and range of service provision is variable’, itis sensible for you to have some organising questions in mind to enable you to structure yourreport. Your teacher may set these for you. For the sake of argument, we will examine the CBD andsuburbs of a town. Here are two examples of organising questions:• A larger number and wider range of services will be available in the CBD compared to the • The types of leisure and recreation opportunities will differ in the suburbs to the CBD.
Structuring the report
Provide an introduction containing descriptions of the location of your two places of study. Anexcellent way to do this would be to include maps from the Ordnance Survey website(www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/). Here you can search for specific places, and as well asgetting accurate maps of your location at various different scales. You can also pinpoint the gridreference. As well as giving the general location details, it is important at this stage that you explain whetherthese two areas are typical – or atypical – of the two zones they are found within (CBD andsuburbs). Your analysis should then focus on the two organising questions outlined above. This is where youwill also present the data (primary and secondary) that you have collected and put together. Some photographs of the two zones, taken while doing the fieldwork, could be one form of primarydata. You could then annotate these photographs to demonstrate the peculiarities and specificfeatures of the two zones in terms of the services they offer. You could also make a sketch of themain services on offer in the zone where you are carrying out your research. However, make surethat your labels relate to the purpose of your investigation. It may be that you also decide to collect and collate questionnaire data to demonstrate the range ofgoods and sphere of influence in the two places. Do you think people will travel further to shop inthe CBD or to shops in the outer suburbs? Which would you therefore expect to have the widersphere of influence? GCSE Geography for WJEC B Dynamic Learning EXAM SUPPORT CONTROLLED ASSESSMENT
A questionnaire designed by you may therefore focus on questions such as:• How far have you travelled to get here?• How often do you shop here?• Did you come shopping here with the intention of buying certain items? If so, what? • In your opinion, what other services are needed here? Of course, the types of questions (and how many) will vary depending upon the two places youchoose to compare. Using Google maps (www.maps.google.co.uk), you could also determine where you feel the CBDbegins and ends, before surveying the CBD of the town in terms of the types of shops present (i.e.
Comparison, convenience, specialist), etc. If you have access to a GPS (Global Positioning System) unit, you may be able to establish where,and how many, shops or services of a particular type are to be found within an area. Furtherinformation about this can be found at: www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/education/mappingnews/previouseditions/31/p18.pdf You may also decide to use maps to pinpoint places where you can do pedestrian counts to assessthe number of shoppers passing the main shops within an area during a defined time (for example,three points in a day for ten minutes). This might help you to establish the differing demand forservices in different places. In terms of secondary data, the Neighbourhood Statistics website(www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/) enables you to analyse different areas andwards according to their service provision. Once you have processed this data and put it into a tableor graphical form, you must make sure you analyse it. This is also true of the primary data youhave collected as part of this process. You will need to comment critically on the data collated. To what extent has it enabled you to cometo a conclusion? What conclusion have you reached, and does it match your expected findings?This evaluation should include some critical comments about the data used and how useful it was.
You also need to consider what other sources of information could have been consulted, had timenot been a limiting factor.
GCSE Geography for WJEC B Dynamic Learning

Source: http://resources.dynamic-learning.co.uk/Titles/GCSE_Geography_for_WJEC_B/a0a44a86-1757-47f7-acdc-f4de3e250031/Resources/GCSEGeogWJECB_00080.pdf?institutionID=940ecbec-9f4b-4508-a84f-2ada0acf9259&titleID=36&titleGUID=A0A44A86-1757-47F7-ACDC-F4DE3E250031&fileType=PDF&u=fb8661ee-2e63-42c4-92d7-86097643860f&vle=true