We decided to visualize the relation between the number of Canadian households owning cats and/or dogs and the number of injured wildlife admitted to the BC SPCA. We chose these data sets as according to the SPCA, one of the major causes of injured wildlife in BC is outdoor cat and off-leash dog attacks. So, we wanted to visualize this connection.
We visualized our data as a 3d asterisk with spheres and string on it. The asterisk branches represent a year (2019-2024) and are a metaphor for tree branches, which are associated with wildlife, as they are made of wood. The pompoms represent the percentage of households owning cats and/or dogs each year. They also represent the households as they are fixed, like houses are fixed. The red string represents the number of admitted injured wildlife. The red string also metaphorically represents the injured wildlife because the red colour represents the blood and the injuries of the wildlife. Then the fact the string is roaming throughout the branches and doesn’t have a set location represents how wildlife are free roamers and don’t belong to a household.
Planning Stage:
Diagram key:
- Each wood branch is a year, and each colour of pompoms is a year
- Blue is 2019
- Purple is 2020
- Orange is 2021
- Pink is 2022
- Green is 2023
- White is 2024
- Each wrap of red string around a branch is the amount of injured wildlife
- 1 wrap thick red string is 1000 injured wildlife
- 1 wrap thin red string is 50 injured wildlife
- Each pompom represents a percentage of households owning dogs and/or cats:
- Big is 10%
- Medium is 5%
- Small is 1%
****NOTE: the average between the percentage statistics of households owning cats and dogs was taken and each percentage is rounded
- 2019: 36.85% rounded to 37%
- 2020: 37.9% rounded to 38%
- 2021: 39.6% rounded to 40%
- 2022: 39.15% rounded to 39%
- 2023: 38.85% rounded to 39%
- 2024: 38.89% rounded to 39%
Data sets:
https://spca.bc.ca/programs-services/wildlife-rehabilitation/wild-arc-stats-glance/
Core Competency Reflection – Critical Thinking (Question and Investigate)
I can explore materials and actions.
I really enjoyed this project because it gave me the opportunity to explore different materials that were available to me. We were very fortunate to have found the perfect wood pieces in the Woodworking room scrap bin. Before we found the pieces, we were thinking about what else we could use to make the asterisk shape. A few of the options we came up with were stir sticks or popsicle sticks. We made our prototype out of the stir sticks but decided that they were too small to support the other components. For our representation of the number of households with dogs and/or cats, we were originally going to use Styrofoam balls that we cut in half and painted but it was taking too long to paint all of them because they needed multiple coats. After this discovery, we decided to change to pom poms. This decision made our lives easier because the pom poms were already coloured and there were different sizes that we could use to represent different numbers.
I can evaluate the credibility of sources of information.
When we were beginning this project, it was not long after things started heating up in the US. We had to be careful with the American websites we were looking at because we had no way of knowing if the information had been changed or was inaccurate. We decided to stick to information that was more local just to be safe. We wanted to use data related to wildlife which is great because Canada has such a wide variety to choose from. One of the ways I checked the sources I found for their credibility was to see if I could find other websites that supported the information from the original source.
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