Our objective: to analyze data and learn how to make educated hypotheses from analysis
A person's "gait" is a set of data that combined can show the way said person walks or moves. We used the gait data of classmates in order to practice analyzing data and creating educated hypotheses.
First, we all split into different groups and spent out time gathering data. Some of our data was easily calculated and was taken mainly because we thought it'd be useful down the road, such as height, leg height, and step distance. The gait data was taken with an accelerometer app on our phones, and in raw data, it looked like this:
First, we all split into different groups and spent out time gathering data. Some of our data was easily calculated and was taken mainly because we thought it'd be useful down the road, such as height, leg height, and step distance. The gait data was taken with an accelerometer app on our phones, and in raw data, it looked like this:
The x, y, and z axes each represent a different plane of moving. Z is forward/backward, y is up/down, and x is left/right. These numbers showed how much we accelerated or decelerated at a given moment in our testing. In their raw form, they seem pretty hard to compare and analyze, but as long as we put them into a graph on Google Sheets, it became easier to deal with:
Afterwards, everyone shared their gait data, and we compared and contrasted with each other to figure out our ultimate goal: could we potentially guess the height of someone with the data that we had? My partner and I never found a concrete answer, but I came up with a theory that the lowest point on the y-axis data correlated with height.
The reason that we couldn't come up with a concrete answer was because everyone had measured their gait in completely different ways than other groups. We hadn't come up with a concrete set of rules to follow while testing, so while some people would put their phone (which measured the gait using the accelerometer app) on their waist, others would put it on their hip, or maybe their ribcage. Also, the measurement of height ended up being important, but some of the groups never measured it, which made it harder to determine any correlation between our gait data and the person's height.
So some data appeared like this:
So some data appeared like this:
But other data looked like this:
But unfortunately, since everything looked so different, and we didn't have a set method of measuring gait throughout the class we couldn't accurately analyze the data, and that's something that we all need to learn how to do.
I had a few issues myself because I didn't organize my data well or at least write down what data I used. Sure, my copy of the chart had each group on their own separate page, but then when I started to gather information from the graphs and measurements, I didn't write down which graphs I used, so it took longer to analyze because I had to make sure I didn't use any data a second time on accident.
Fortunately, there were some things I was good at with my partner. For instance, we all contributed our own ideas and opinions when we were first gathering and sorting the data. We calmly and professionally discussed what we should record and to what extent we should record it. This also shows a second thing we were good at together - communicating with each other.
I had a few issues myself because I didn't organize my data well or at least write down what data I used. Sure, my copy of the chart had each group on their own separate page, but then when I started to gather information from the graphs and measurements, I didn't write down which graphs I used, so it took longer to analyze because I had to make sure I didn't use any data a second time on accident.
Fortunately, there were some things I was good at with my partner. For instance, we all contributed our own ideas and opinions when we were first gathering and sorting the data. We calmly and professionally discussed what we should record and to what extent we should record it. This also shows a second thing we were good at together - communicating with each other.