Reading tabulated data

Tabulated data means information given in a table. Tabulated data is often in numerical form. Numerical tables are a neat way of storing a lot of information. They have a wide range of uses. When reading a numerical table, always look first at its title, its column headings and its row headings. These show what the table is all about. Look at the headings in the table below, it’s a monthly rainfall chart. The column heading show the letters J, F, M, …. These are abbreviations for January, February, March, …

Abbreviations are often used in tables. They save space. We often have to use common sense when deciding what the abbreviations are short for. The row headings give the names of four towns for any month.

We read the table by making a cross-reference.  For example, to find the rainfall for Ibadan and down from S. Where the two directions corss, gives the information. On average, Ibadan gets 178 mm of rain in September.

Refer to the table above for the exercise

1. Use the table to find the average rain fall for the following:
2. Sokoto in January
3. Port Harcourt in December
4. Jos in May
5. Ibadan in March
6. Port Harcourt in June
7. Sokoto in August
8. Ibadan in July
9. Jos in October
10. Sokoto in February
11. Jos in November
12. Port Harcout in September
13. For each town, name the month which has the highest rainfall.
14. For each town, name the month(s) with the lowest rainfall.

Social and environmental issues

The exercise below gives practice in interpreting data based on important social and environmental issue. Discuss this question with your classmates and teacher. Supplement the exercise with relevant articles and data from newspaper.

Exercise

The table below shows the gender gaps in primary school enrolment in six Local Government Authorities (LGA) of a state for the years 2006/07 to 2008/09. [A note on gender gap: if a school population is 54% boys and 46% girls, then the gender gap is 8 percentage points].

Average gender gap

1. Did the gender gaps generally increase or decrease over the period?
2. Which LGA do you think had the best record?
3. Which LGA showed the greatest improvement?
4. Look at the LGA 3 in 2008/09. What does a negative gender gap mean?

Timetables and charts

Railway timetables

Railway timetables give the times or arrival and departure of trains for various towns.

The table below is a timetable for train services between Ibadan and Offa.

IBADAN – OFFA

In the figure above, UP and DN means up and down. In Nigeria, UP trains travel in a direction away from the coast. DN trains travel towards the coast. 201 and 202 are the numbers of the train service.

Read the timetable in figure above.

1. What do the letters D and A stand for?
2. What time does 201 UP train a.depart from Ibadan, b. arrive Offa?
3. How long does the ‘up journey’ take from Ibadan to Offa?
4. How long does 201 UP train stay at Oshogbo?
5. What time does 202 DN train a. depart from Offa b. arrive Ibadan?

ASSESSMENT

Express the following times in terms of the 24-hour clock?

5. a. 5.40 am b. 2.10 pmc. 10.10 pm d. 9.26 am e. 7.25 pm f. 11.55 am