Year level: 5 / 6

Strand: Statistics

Lesson length: 60 mins

In this lesson, students acquire data related to the migration of the osprey. Students represent and interpret the data, discussing and reporting on the data distribution. They compare two types of charts to decide which type is best to display the dataset.

This lesson is the second in a series of six lessons that connect the cross-curriculum priority of Sustainability, Statistics and the Science learning area: Science as a human endeavour. AC9S5H01, AC9S6H01 and AC9S5H02, AC9S6H02.

This lesson was developed in collaboration with Conservation Without Borders. Data and information provided by Tweed Valley Osprey Project.

Osprey migration data Image

Achievement standard

By the end of Year 5, students interpret and compare datasets for ordinal and nominal categorical, discrete and continuous numerical variables using comparative displays or visualisations and digital tools. They identify the mode and interpret the shape of distributions of data in context. They compare distributions of discrete and continuous numerical and ordinal categorical datasets as part of their statistical investigations, using digital tools.

By the end of Year 6, students compare distributions of discrete and continuous numerical and ordinal categorical datasets as part of their statistical investigations, using digital tools.

Content descriptions

Students acquire, validate and represent data for nominal and ordinal categorical and discrete numerical variables, to address a question of interest or purpose using software including spreadsheets; discuss and report on data distributions in terms of highest frequency (mode) and shape, in the context of the data. AC9M5ST01

Students interpret and compare datasets for ordinal and nominal categorical, discrete and continuous numerical variables using comparative displays or visualisations and digital tools; compare distributions in terms of mode, range and shape. AC9M6ST01

General capabilities

Numeracy

  • Interpreting and representing data (Level 4)

Digital literacy

  • Investigating: Interpret data (Level 4)

Cross-curriculum priorities

Sustainability

  • Futures (SF1)

Have students save digital versions of their graphs to record and view their progress in use of spreadsheet software such as Excel (MS) or Numbers (iOS).

Create a class checklist to assess students’ proficiency in the use of a spreadsheet to analyse and visualise data.

Observe whether students can make relevant and accurate conclusions about the data Example might include:

  • birds that have a rest break during migration have a longer journey time
  • of the 10 birds observed, 4 birds did not rest and travelled for no more than 22 days
  • the longest migration time was for bird 2, which travelled for a total of 90 days including 64 rest days
  • birds 8 and 9 had the fastest travel time with 8 travel days and no rest days.

Some students may:

  • have difficulty transferring data in a table to a visual representation such as a chart
  • have limited familiarity with working with data using a spreadsheet
  • require support to interpret different charts and to choose the most suitable chart to represent a dataset.

Prior to this lesson, it is assumed that students have knowledge of:

  • interpreting information in a table
  • representing data in column graphs
  • different ways to visualise data other than a column graph.

It is also assumed students are familiar with terms such as:

  • position and location
  • height and altitude
  • migration.

What you need:

  • Lesson plan (Word)

  • Teacher’s slides (PowerPoint)

  • Osprey migration data sheet (Word or Excel)

  • Osprey migration flight and rest days-set up (Excel)

  • Sacha Dench profile poster (PDF)

  • Access to computer/tablet and spreadsheet software such as Excel (MS) or Numbers (iOS)