Definition - nature of the problem

Description of the organization:

The organization is a private international school formed in 1964 called M… School located in S… A… in the south of France; due to its ideal location close to both the Alps and sea. The teaching staff consists of 45 teachers in different departments, maths, sciences, and languages. There are currently 454 students in the school.

The school has a Library, 2 art studios, 3 science laboratories, Information Technology centre, music room and a performing arts hall, examinations room, as well as a synthetic football pitch and outdoor games court and a gymnasium. The students in form 11 take the IGCSE (International General Certificates in Education) examination and then go on into taking their Advanced International Programme, AS in form 12 and A-level in form 13.

Every year they organize a big sporting event where students compete against each other to score points for their houses. The students in form 5 to seniors (form 13) compete in the following events: triple jump, high and long jump, 100m, 200m, 300m 400m 800 and 1500 as well as javelin and shot putt. These events are split into age groups and gender to keep the competition fair. There are four houses blue, red, yellow and green. The house that has the most points wins the event.

Methods currently in use:

A computerized database contains the different houses with the students in each house separated in different forms. The information is printed from the database so that there is one sheet for each form. These sheets are used during the event to keep track of all the points scored by each individual student. The points are recorded manually during the course of the event on the corresponding sheet of paper. At the end of the event all of the points are then added up to have a total for each individual house.

Origin of the data:

The data comes from the events, the lengths or times are recorded and then the points are allocated depending on what position the student arrived in the event. After the event the student the students name and position is written on a result sheet and the number of points are allocated.

Form the data takes:

Once the student has done his event the data is then given to one of the teachers from the P.E department to then be written in the sheet of paper so you can see how many points each student has gotten and in what event. Then the points are added up to get the total number of points for each house. The final form for the data is then the numerical data on paper document. The samples are showed after the first interview since they were obtained then.

This is the sheet of paper which is used to fill in the results. It contains the fields to enter the name of students in the position that they arrive as well as a field to enter the number of points scored by the student.

(ii) Investigation and analysis [8 marks]

This section is the ‘systems analysis’. The learner should describe how the client requirements were ascertained (e.g. by discussion with the client, questionnaires distributed to users, question and answer sessions, etc.). A clear requirements specification should be defined. Alternative outline solutions should be discussed and evaluated against one another. If relevant commercial solutions are available, then discussion of their functionality should be included. Any relevant mathematical or scientific equations should be recognised and discussed. For learning games, the rules should be gathered from the client or researched.

Example 2c: sports day record-keeping project.