2023 NYJC J1 Promos Ans Key

1 JC1 H1 Geography End-of-Year Examination Suggested Answers Section A 1. A group of 10 students carried out an investigation to look into the needs of the elderly living in urban neighbourhoods, particularly the homeless in Singapore. They decided on the following hypothesis for their investigation: ‘Homelessness is more prevalent amongst the lower income elderly in Singapore because they cannot afford to pay for housing.’ The group decided to do a survey on the homeless elderly around Singapore via a questionnaire that is being translated to the 3 major languages – Mandarin, Malay and Tamil. They have decided to do their survey in different parts of Singapore where they stay. They also plan to do their survey from 10pm to about 12midnight on a Friday, and look for them at void decks and near closed eateries. Resource 1 shows an infographic of the homeless in Singapore. Resources 2A and 2B show the questionnaire survey (the English version) the students used in their investigation and the selected results of the questionnaire survey. Resource 3 shows how the Singapore government is helping the elderly population in terms of housing. (a) Explain whether the student’s hypothesis is capable of research. [4] Award 1 mark for each explanation of why the hypothesis is capable of research, to a maximum of 4m. Award a maximum of 1 additional mark for further development of each explanation, where applicable. Possible responses include: Yes, capable of research.  Clearly defined – identified a specific target group: lower income elderly [1m] There are limitations to the research.  Not a suitable scale – whole of Singapore too big a scale for 10 students, and doing GI on only one Friday night is too short a time with too little manpower to yield many samples ( Resource 2B shows only 24 samples – too small a sample for a hypothesis that investigates on Singapore). [1m]  Not fully researchable – Although the students might be able to find some homeless elderly in the neighbourhood that they live in and are familiar with, and be able to ask some questions through the questionnaire, [1m] they have not familiarise themselves with secondary data available - like where the homeless are congregated (eg. Downtown, Bedok, Kallang), and research those more populated areas instead. [1 additional mark]

2 (b) With reference to Resources 1 and 2A, explain how the students can best collect data on the homeless elderly in Singapore. [4] Award 1 mark for each explanation of how students can best collect data on the homeless elderly in Singapore. Award a maximum of 1 additional mark for further development of each explanation, where applicable. Possible responses include:  Resource 1: To determine a sample size and to have enough manpower for collecting data for the area (ie. Singapore) [1m]. If they are limited to 10 students, they should then do a stratified sampling to obtain representative data of the population  eg. Collect equal elderly samples from areas with most homeless persons – like Downtown, Bedok and Kallang [1 additional mark].  Resource 2A: Explain to the elderly what the investigation is about first so they will understand the purpose [1m] and if they consent to do the questionnaire, the results will be more meaningful and reliable [1 additional mark].  Resource 2A: might also be better to have open-ended interview questions (eg. why do you choose to stay out here?) [1m] rather than a questionnaire that assumes (eg. Q1 and Q2 - that they stay out because they have no choice or they didn’t want to stay with anybody, which is ambiguous) [1 additional mark]. (c) Suggest how the students could minimize potential risk and reduce possible impacts while conducting their investigations on the homeless elderly. [6] Award 1 mark for each suggestion on how the students could minimize potential risk or to reduce possible impacts. Award a maximum of 1 additional mark for further development of each suggestion, where applicable. Award a maximum of 4 marks for suggestion on either minimize potential risk or reduce possible impacts. Possible responses include: Minimize Risk:  Stranger Danger – Students should always go in groups of 2 for safety reasons [1m]. This is because they will be approaching strangers, and the investigation is done at night in places that are usually hidden (privacy for homeless). Some of these homeless might even demand a favour in return for the information they give [1 additional mark].  Risks from elements – Students should be alert to safety concerns like finding shelter should there be a downpour or lightning occurring at night [1m]. This is because there are not many retail or eateries open to take shelter in at night. They can also check the weather forecast before going out to do their investigation [1 additional mark].

3  Risk from other persons - They should also be alert to being a target of unruly behaviour of drunkards at night [1m]. This is because they are doing the investigation on a Friday night, so there and there might be drunkards from pubs who have finished partying and who they might run into duri ng the late hours of the night [1 additional mark].  Health safety – the students could wear masks to prevent transfer of diseases or viruses in the course of their investigations as not all homeless have access to healthcare and some of them might be unwel l [1m]. Students can also take precaution to sanitise or wash their hands if they should accidently touch items that could be contaminated as sometimes the homeless elderly might not have washed their clothes or belongings for a while [1 additional mark]. Reduce Impacts:  Reduce anxiety by ensuring confidentiality – as some of the questions can be quite sensitive and confidential, the students should ensure the homeless elderly that their answers will be kept confidential [1m]. They can do this by explaining the purpose of the survey, which is to collect data for their school project. They can also let the homeless elderly know that they need not answer questions that they do not feel comfortable answering [1 additional mark].  Noise and disturbance – they should make minimal noise so that residents around will not be disturbed [1m]. This is because the students will be doing their survey late into the night in residential areas (void decks), and noise travels upwards if they are too noisy – so if they need to meet up to consolidate their results, they should do it elsewhere. [1 additional mark].  Interrupting the sleep of the elderly – students should not wake the homeless elderly up to do the survey if they are already sleeping [1m]. This is because they elderly could have had a long day and might need to work the next day as well. Moreover, if they are woken up, they might not want to do the survey because they are tired [1 additional mark]. (d) Explain the best way students can present the data they collected from the questionnaire in Resource 2B. [6] Award 1 mark for each explanation of the best way students can present the data they collected, up to a maximum of 5 marks. Award a maximum of 1 additional mark for further development of each explanation, where applicable. Possible responses include:  Radial graph/ star graph  from a bipolar survey  scores of -2 to 2 can be given based on the category [1m]  very clear what the responses are to the different questions and can compare across questions. [1 additional mark] OR

4  Multiple bar graph/ stacked bar graph  (can be 6 or 4 bars  to include one for no data also) [1m]  so that it is clear what the response from the homeless elderly who are interviewed are [1 additional mark]  Title block  draw [1m] that is clear  Results of Questionnaire survey on 24 elderl