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ef4237 lisa 2026-04-25 22:18:29
Add C02 wiki content (DRAFT) — landing page, key-concept pages, Resources Builds out C02 (Data Collection & Analytical Diagrams). Adds C02-home, 3 new key-concept pages (DRAFT for teacher review tomorrow), external resource rows in C02-Resources.md, and a Hub link to C02-home. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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> **DRAFT** — under teacher review.
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# Explaining vs Describing Your Data Collection
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Hamilton College · Year 12 · 2026
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The jump from 7–8 to 9–10 on Indicator 1 (Data Collection) comes down to a single word in the rubric: **"explains"** instead of **"describes"**. Every year, students hit 7–8 and can't understand why — it is almost always this.
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---
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## The rubric in plain language
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| Band | What the rubric actually says | What that means in practice |
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|---|---|---|
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| **7–8** | *Describes how the data collected will be used to determine user characteristics and the technical environment* | You say **what** the data is for. "I used interviews to find out what features users want." |
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| **9–10** | *Explains the use of the selected data collection methods* | You say **why** this method was the right choice for this kind of data. "I chose interviews over surveys because I needed qualitative insight into workflows that users couldn't easily articulate in a questionnaire." |
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The word "explains" requires a **reason** — not just a statement.
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---
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## Side-by-side: same plan, two different bands
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The scenario: a student whose project is a school assignment tracker. They used interviews and a survey.
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### 7–8 version (describing)
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> I used an interview with my client to find out what features they wanted in the assignment tracker. I also used a survey to ask students which subjects gave them the most homework. These helped me determine the requirements for the system.
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**What's missing:** There is no reason given for *why* an interview was chosen over, say, a survey. There is no reason given for *why* a survey was used for students rather than interviewing them. The student is describing what happened, not explaining the decision.
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### 9–10 version (explaining)
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> I chose an interview for my initial data collection because my client — a teacher — needed to articulate complex workflow preferences that a survey's fixed-choice responses couldn't capture. A face-to-face conversation allowed me to follow up on unexpected answers in real time. I then chose a survey for the broader student group because I needed **countable data** — specifically, which subjects generated the highest homework load — and a survey's closed-ended questions give me numbers I can rank. Interviewing 30 students would have been impractical in the available time, and quantitative data served the purpose better here.
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**What's there:** Each method has a **reason** tied to the *type of data needed* and the *practical constraints*. The student is not just listing methods — they are justifying each one against the alternatives they did not choose.
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---
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## The formula for an "explaining" sentence
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> I chose **[method]** over **[alternative method]** because I needed **[type of data / depth / scale]**, and **[method]** allows me to **[specific advantage]**.
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Write one of these for each of your three or more data collection methods. If you can't complete the sentence, you do not yet know why you chose that method — and the examiner will ask.
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---
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## Common traps
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- **"I used interviews because they are good for qualitative data."** — This is still describing (a general property of interviews), not explaining your specific choice. Add: *why did this project need qualitative data at this stage?*
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- **"I chose three methods to get a variety of data."** — "Variety" is not a reason. Name what each method adds that the others cannot.
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- **"I used surveys because they are easy to send out."** — Convenience is not a justification the rubric rewards. Reframe it: *a survey allowed me to reach all 80 students in the year level simultaneously, which an interview schedule could not achieve within the one-week collection window.*
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---
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## Why VCAA cares
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The C2-1 validation is a **presentation** — the examiner will ask follow-up questions. A student who has only described their methods will struggle to answer "Why didn't you just use a survey for everything?" A student who has explained their choices has already answered that question in their own plan.
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Practise saying your explanations out loud before the validation. If you stumble, rewrite. The rubric rewards understanding, not recall.
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---
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## See also
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- C02 Resources: [external reading and videos](/sd/Resources/C02-Resources)
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---
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