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The next step was to fill the database with
information.
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The children entered the data into the database.
Working in pairs, one child read from the printed data while another
typed.
We had created some fields with keywords to
avoid the problem of information being entered inconsistently
but there was still a difficulty when the children were entering
names of countries in the database.
Because there were too many countries to create a list of keywords
for that field, the children had to type in the name on each record.
When the database was checked later it was found that country
names had not been entered consistently.
Countries that caused problems included the USA, Britain, Germany
and the USSR. All of these countries had more than one way of
writing their name
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Accuracy of the data in the database is very important.
The children need to be aware that a database will not be able to tell
if a piece of information is entered incorrectly. This can mean that
searches and graphs may not give the answers that were expected. We
realised the Olympic database we had created contained some inconsistent
data.
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We used the list view
to manually check the information once it had been entered. |
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All of the information needs to be held in
the same database if investigations are to be carried out. It
is possible to create separate databases, enter different data
into them and then merge them together at the end of the process.
If you plan to merge databases together they must have the same
field structure. This means that the fields must have the same
names, types and lengths in both of the databases. If this is
the case, open the first database, choose file > merge files
then select the database to merge with the current file.
Once the database has been created save it for future use. It
is possible to copy the file onto many different computers, or
to save it into a shared area on a school network.
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The next step was to use the database to investigate
the Olympic data.
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