social studies sba

School Based Assessment

Name: Jillian Richards

TITLE: Problems faced by Meadowbrook High School students on the number 31 bus route

Subject: Social Studies

School: Meadowbrook High School

Territory: Jamaica

Candidate #: 100075____

Centre #: 100075

Teacher: Miss Grey

Year: 2014- 2015

Problems Faced by Meadowbrook High School Students on the Number

31 Bus Route

Table of Contents

Title Pages

Acknowledgement 3

Statement of the Problem 4

Reason for selecting the Area of Research 5

Method of Investigation 6

Instrument Used to Collect Data 7-9

Procedure Used to Collect Data 10

Presentation and Explanation of Data 11-18

Analysis and Interpretation of Data 19-20

Findings 21

Recommendation and Implementation of Data 22

Bibliography 23

Acknowledgement

The researcher would like to acknowledge the following persons who helped to contributed to

this project.

First of all the researcher would like to thank her mother Sherien Richards and her neighbor

Simone Smith who helped me to come up with my questionnaire. She would also like to thank

her social studies teacher for helping her assignment and correcting her through every step of the

way. She would then like to thank her friends for their continuous support and finally she would

like to thank God for giving her the strength, courage and understanding to accomplish this

school based assessment.

Thank You All

Statement of Problem

What are the problems faced by Meadowbrook High students on the number 31 bus route?

Reason for Selecting the Area of Research

The reason this topic was selected is because the number 31 bus route which runs from

Downtown via Weymouth Drive, Spanish Town Road, Duhaney Park to Meadowbrook is

seemingly slow and unorganized and most times takes hours for a bus to arrive.

Therefore by doing this topic the researcher hopes to achieve results on how to remedy this

chronic problem faced by the Meadowbrook High School students who travel this route on a

daily basis.

Method of Investigation

The researcher’s method of investigation is in the form of a questionnaire. This method of

investigation was chosen because it is relatively quick and easy to collect and analyze data,

questionnaires provide a sense of secrecy which allows for a person to freely give his/her

opinion, questionnaires are also easy to understand which will make persons more willing to

answer them, questionnaires also take very little time to answer thereby making people feel that

they are not wasting a large amount of their time and lastly questionnaires can be easily

distributed to a number of persons to allow the researcher with larger base of opinions and will

not take a lot of time to analyze them. These are the contributing factors that caused the

researcher to choose a questionnaire as the method of investigation to distribute to Meadowbrook

High School students who travel on the number 31 bus route.

Instrument Used to Collect Data

Questionnaire

This questionnaire is to help the researcher to find out and understand the problems faced by Meadowbrook High School students on the number 31 bus route so please answer the following questions truthfully and honestly thank-you.

1. What is your gender?□Male□Female

2. What age group do you fall in?□13-14□15-16□17-18□19-20

3. What grade level do you fall in?□7-8□9-10□11-13

4. When do you take the number 31 bus?□School days□School days and weekends

5. What are the problems that you face on the number 31 bus?□Overcrowding□Rude drivers’□Late arrival of buses

6. How often do these problems occur?□Everyday□A few times a week□Once in awhile

7. Which of the following are reasons why the number 31 buses have problems with its schedule?□Traffic□Few Buses□Damage roads□If others please specify

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8. In your opinion do you think that the Meadowbrook High School students are treated poorly on the number 31 bus?□Yes□No

9. If your answer is yes to question eight how so? Do they□ Speak to in a demeaning matter□Force you to give up your seat to a healthy capable adult□If others please specify

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10. Does the schedule of the number 31 bus affect your arrival time for school?□Yes□No

11. If your answer is yes to question ten how often?□Once in a while □On a daily basis

12. Does the schedule of the number 31 bus contribute to idleness among Meadowbrook High students?□Most definitely □Not really□No

13. Which of the following words would you use to describe number 31 bus drivers?□Nice□Rude□Indifferent□Other

14. Have you made complaints to the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (J.U.T.C) officials regarding the schedule of the number 31 buses?□Yes□No

15. What are some of the methods you could suggest to help improve the number 31 bus route for Meadowbrook High Students?□More Buses□Better Scheduling □Other

Procedure Used to Collect Data

A sample consisting of 20 individuals from the Meadowbrook High School was selected to assist

the researcher in gathering information for this investigation. The sample was made up of (9)

males and (11) females with grades ranging from 7-10th grade. The sample the researcher used

was chosen at random, the researcher started by choosing 5 students from each grade level until

the required number for the sample was achieved.

In order to collect data the researcher used a questionnaire that was approved by the researchers’

teacher in order to gather the necessary information. A time of 15 minutes was given to complete

the questionnaire. This was issued within the respondents lunch period so as not to disrupt their

class schedules.

Presentation and Explanation of Data

The researcher presented the data in the form of a pie chart and a bar graph

Question 5

Bar graph showing the problems faced on the number 31 bus by Meadowbrook High School students

overcrowding rude drivers late arrival of buses0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

Figure 1

Figure 1 is bar graphs showing which of the following are problems most commonly faced by

Meadowbrook High students. Six (6) said overcrowding, two (2) said rude drivers, and twelve

(12) said late arrival of buses.

Question 7

Pie chart showing reasons believed to be why the number 31 buses may be having problems.

Traffic ; 1

Few Buses; 15

Damaged Roads; 3

Others; 1

Figure 2

Figure 2 is pie chart showing which of the following reasons are why Meadowbrook High

students feel the number 31 buses have problems. Three (3) said damaged roads, one (1) said

traffic, fifteen (15) said few buses on the route and one (1) selected the other option.

Question 10

A doughnut graph showing how the schedule of the number 31 bus affects Meadowbrook High

School students’ arrival time for school

yes; 16

no; 4

Figure 3

The doughnut graph in figure 3 shows responses, as to whether or not the schedule for the

number 31 bus affects Meadowbrook High School students’ arrival time for school. Sixteen (16)

said yes and four (4) said no.

Question 11

Side cone graph showing how often the schedule of the number 31 bus affects the arrival time

for Meadowbrook High School students for school

2-3 days

1-5 days

No answer

5

5

10

Series1

Figure 4

Figure 4 is a side cone graph showing responses as to how often does the schedule of the number

31 bus affects the arrival time for Meadowbrook High School students for school. Five (5)

persons said 1-5 days, five (5) persons said 2-3 days and ten (10) persons did not give a response.

Question 12

Bar graph showing if the schedule of the number 31 bus contributes to idleness among

Meadowbrook High students

Definitely Not Really0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

6

12

Figure 5

Figure 5 is a bar graph showing responses as to if the schedule of the number 31 bus contributes

to idleness among Meadowbrook High School students. Six (6) said most definitely and twelve

(12) said not really.

Question 15

Pie chart showing methods that can help to improve the number 31 bus route for Meadowbrook

High School students

More buses22%

Better scheduling44%

Other33%

Figure 6

The pie chart in figure 6 shows methods which may be used to improve the number 31 bus route

for Meadowbrook High School students. Eight (8) said more buses on the 31 route, six (6) said

better scheduling and three (3) said other.

According to the questionnaires that were issued and returned. From the sample it is shown that

Meadowbrook High School students face many problems on the number 31 bus. These problems

need to be corrected in the near future to better improve traveling for Meadowbrook High School

students.

Figure 1 illustrates a bar graph which showed the different problems faced by the students on the

number 31 bus. Six (6) persons said overcrowding, two (2) persons said rude drivers, and twelve

(12) said the late arrival of buses.

Figure 2 is a pie chart that shows the causes for the problems of the number 31 bus schedule.

One (1) person said traffic, one (1) person selected other, three (3) persons said damaged roads,

and fifteen (15) said few buses.

Figure 3 represents a bar graph showing the amount of persons who think that the schedule for

the number 31 bus affects Meadowbrook High School students arrival time for school. Sixteen

(16) persons said yes the schedule of the number 31bus affects students’ arrival time for school

and four (4) persons said no.

Figure 4 is a side bar graph which asked the question ‘how often does the schedule for the

number 31 bus affect your arrival time for school?’ the chart showed that five (5) persons said 2-

3 days, ten (10) persons said 1-5 days, and five (5) persons gave no answer.

Figure 5 illustrates a bar graph which shows the amount of persons who believe that the arrival

time for the number 31 buses contributes to idleness among Meadowbrook High School

students’. Six (6) persons said it most definitely contributes to idleness among Meadowbrook

High School students, and twelve (12) persons said no.

Figure 6 is a bar graph which shows methods that could help to improve the number 31 bus route

for Meadowbrook High School students’. Eight (8) persons said add more buses to that route, six

(6) said to better schedule the running of the number 31 buses, and four (4) persons selected the

‘other’ option.

Analysis and Interpretation of Data

The responses from the data collected by the researcher were taken from students from the grade

levels of seven to ten (7-10).

From the responses received from the questions the researcher discovered that Meadowbrook

High School Students face many problems on the number 31 bus route.

The fifth question showed a few of the problems faced by the Meadowbrook High School

students’ on the number 31 bus. Six (6) persons said overcrowding, two (2) said rude drivers and

twelve (12) said late arrival of buses. It is in the opinion of the researcher that this is a chain

reaction problem; this is believed because due to the late arrival of the buses, there would be a

large number of students at the bus stops which would result in the overcrowding of the number

31 bus. And most times overcrowding results in an increase of the noise levels which may irritate

and annoy the bus driver to an extent where they start to behave in a rude and irate manner.

In the seventh question it showed what possible causes there are, to the problems faced by the

number 31 buses. One (1) person said traffic, fifteen (15) persons said there are few buses on this

route, three (3) persons said damaged roads, and one (1) person selected the other option. The

researcher believes that due to the insufficient amount of buses this would actually be the main

problem that plagues the students of the Meadowbrook High School who traverse on the 31 bus

routes. This is because when there is an insufficient number of buses on a route persons may try

to suggest that it may be caused my common factors such as damaged roads, traffic etc. For if it

were the cause that damaged roads were the main problems then the conditions of the bus would

be in a deplorable condition which could have caused the insufficient number of buses on the

route and with regards to the traffic problems this could cause the overheating of the buses for to

keep the engine running for long periods of time can exhaust the engine hence damaging the

mechanical structures of the buses and for the respondent who selected the other option this

person may have considered other factors such as construction of roads or violence along the

number 31 bus route.

The researcher also deduced from the tenth question that the scheduling of the number 31 buses

affect students’ arrival time for school. For when the researcher asked the question ‘Does the

schedule of the number 31 bus affect your arrival time for school?’ sixteen (16) persons

responded Yes while only four (4) said No, which shows that there is a serious problem . And

when asked in the eleventh question (which was a follow up question to the tenth question) how

often does this occur. Five (5) persons said once in a while, ten (10) persons said on a daily basis

and three (3) persons gave no answer. The researcher believes that if the JUTC implemented a

systematic scheduling route that the many problems faced by the number 31 buses would be

significantly reduced. For instance if they were to monitor the times at which the buses are

stationed at each terminus and what time the traffic was the heaviest they could coordinate a

schedule that would allow for the number 31 buses to avoid the traffic or at least not be caught in

it at its busiest hour. For if a better scheduling system is not places the researcher realized from

these finding that the scheduling of the number 31 bus may cause late arrival to school for

Meadowbrook High School students which may cause a student to miss classes, get detention

and if late arrivals happen too often may lead to a suspension.

From these findings the researcher has concluded that the number 31 bus route has many

problems which affect students and make travelling to and from school an unpleasant experience

for them.

Findings

Based on the data that the researcher collected, the researcher was able to clearly identify three

(3) main findings.

1. Meadowbrook High School students’ arrival time for school is affected by the

schedule of the number 31 buses. This was exemplified by Sixteen (16) of the

respondents said yes their arrival time for school is affected while only four (4)

said no.

2. The insufficient number of the number 31 bus seems to me a main problem faced

by the number 31 buses.

3. Overcrowding seems to be a problem faced by Meadowbrook High School

students on the number 31 bus.

Recommendation and Implementation of Strategy

From the research carried out, the researcher recommends that:

1. The Jamaican Urban Transit Company (J.U.T.C) implements a better scheduling

system for the number 31 buses so that long waiting periods will be put at a minimum

and to ensure that the schedule is followed deploy inspectors at each terminuses so

drivers do not stay in one location for too long a period.

2. The Jamaica Urban Transit Company (J.U.T.C), could deploy more buses along

routes such as the 31 that experience heavy usage among school children, with more

buses during peak hours on school days. This will assist in reducing the wait time for the

many students who travel along this route. The researcher thought a good implementation

of better scheduling for the number 31 bus is to do a survey among the students to find

out the different time slots in which they depart from school so that a proper scheduling

system can be made so that buses can be deployed at times before students are to released

so that the number 31 buses can make their rounds and arrive at the terminus in time for

students arrival time at the bus stop so students do not have long waiting periods for the

number 31 buses.

Bibliography

R. Ramsawak and R. Urman (2001) Modules in Social Studied Caribbean Educational

Publishers.