Data projects for charities · Maths CAS idea
Analyse demand for a food bank
ServiceProject-ready
Working with a food bank's staff, analyse anonymised records of visits and stock to show when demand peaks and which items run out.
Where the maths comes in
Time series, averages, seasonal patterns and clear charts for a non-specialist audience.
Which CAS strand it fits
- Service: Unpaid, voluntary work with others that also has a learning benefit for you.
Your CAS coordinator decides how an experience counts at your school. Strand summaries are provisional (our words, being checked).
How to run it
- Meet the organisation and agree the question they want answered.
- Agree in writing what data you may see, already anonymised, and how it will be stored.
- Analyse it with a spreadsheet and check your findings with staff.
- Present a short report and walk them through it.
This can grow into a CAS project if your CAS coordinator agrees: see planning a maths CAS project.
How to evidence it
- The agreed question and data agreement (not the data itself)
- Drafts of charts and the final report
- The organisation's response
Date everything and keep it in your school's CAS portfolio as you go. More on what counts as evidence.
Reflection prompts
Questions to think about, not answers to copy. Write your reflections in your own words, in whatever form your school accepts.
- How did the staff's knowledge change how you read the numbers?
- What did you choose not to show, and why?
- What did the data tell you about need in your area?
Learning outcomes this often gives a chance to show
- Global significance. How does the local need you worked on connect to a wider issue? What did you learn about that issue that you did not know before?
- Ethics. What choice in this experience had a right and a wrong way to do it? Whose interests did you have to protect (privacy, safety, fairness), and how?
- Collaboration. What did someone else bring that you could not have done alone? Describe a disagreement or a mix-up in the team. How was it resolved?
Whether you meet an outcome depends on what you actually do and reflect on, not on the idea. Outcome labels are our short summaries, being checked.
Safety and ethics
- Never handle names, addresses or anything that identifies a person; the organisation anonymises the data before you see it.
- Store files only where the organisation agrees, and delete them when the project ends.
Agree every plan with your CAS coordinator first. Safety and ethics for maths CAS.
Need the statistics? The statistics guide (written for the IA) explains tests and charts step by step. Keep CAS and your IA separate.