Our data expeditions are currently in full flight. There’s just over a week to go, so about half way through, let’s quickly recap what’s happened so far.

Our four teams of intrepid explorers have embarked on a quest to crack world obesity so, without spoiling their scoops, here’s a quick peek into what they’ve been up to…

The Journey so far

Of the four expedition teams that started out, three of them are still alive and kicking. They still have loads of work to do for a final report back – however what they’ve done so far is really insightful. We’ve learnt a lot about how people choose to organise themselves online, angles they are interested in – and even how ambitious they choose to get.

Our four groups: the Courteous Clauses, the Resourceful Puffins, the Hard-Working Aunts and the Versatile Calculators are variously:

• examining the link between socio-economic factors and obesity in the US. A few interesting mapping projects coming through here…
• finding some interesting links between Gross Domestic Product and Body Mass Index and discovered some countries dropping out – Pacific islands. A task remains ahead of them to see whether this is really correlation or coincidence…
• Seeking dataset on fast-food outlets and extensive datasets on health in Europe. They’ll need to push forward to see whether there is correlation between any of the factors they have found and any stories to be told…

To the peak! Onwards intrepid explorers!

In one week from now, the expeditions will wrap up and we’ll then give the group a little time to summarise their findings, learning and present any visible results or plans to save Flatland…

Cover image: Edsel L, Puffin DarrelBirkett.