An atlas is a compendium of geographic, economic, and social information that describes one or more geographic regions. Atlases are used by the sales and marketing functions of businesses, local chambers of commerce, and educators. One of the most critical aspects of a new atlas design is its thematic content.
In a survey of atlas users (Journal of Geography, MayIJune 1995), a large sample of high school teachers in British Columbia ranked 12 thematic atlas topics for usefulness. The consensus rankings of the teachers (based on the percentage of teachers who responded they "would definitely use" the topic) are given in the table above. These teacher rankings were compared to the rankings of a group of university geography alumni made three years earlier.
Compare the distributions of theme rankings for the two groups with an appropriate nonparametric test.
Use a = .05. Interpret the results practically.