Planning tool

Students:

• pose statistical questions to collect data
• choose suitable graphs depending on the type of dataset
• represent their data and interpret trends or relationships
• communicate their findings.

Some students may:

• have difficulty asking questions that have a statistical application. A way to overcome this is to help students refine their question. This can be achieved by demonstrating which questions will allow them to collect data. For example, students can use a table to construct 4 different types of questions involving numerical and categorical variables. This can then be followed with a plan stating:
  • how they will collect data
  • who they will collect data from
  • how much data they will need and why
  • when they will need the data by.

• have difficulty accurately representing data using a relevant data display. They may use a scale that is inappropriate or inaccurate and does not suitably fit the range of data points. To address this, as a class or in targeted teaching groups, show graphical representations and discuss issues and ask students to identify the issue and how it can be corrected. In terms of the scale being used, ensure that students relate this back to the context, that the choice of scale makes it easy to interpret the graph, and that it is not misleading. Provide guidance to help students make judgements about graphs. Discuss features of a useful and accurate data display and what they should include, for example, the title and subtitles should be clear, data must be understandable, scales should use even and consistent intervals, and in column graphs, the columns should have equal spaces in between and each should be the same width.

The Learning from home activities are designed to be used flexibly by teachers, parents and carers, as well as the students themselves. They can be used in a number of ways including to consolidate and extend learning done at school or for home schooling.

Learning intention

• We are learning to collect data by observation, and then construct a display of the collected data.

Why are we learning about this?

• We need to be able to construct a variety of displays that are appropriate for the data we have collected.

What to do

Predict which letter of the alphabet you think is most frequently used in written text. You will then justify your prediction and suggest how you could test this prediction. Possible questions:

1. Would some letters occur more than others? Why?
2. Which letter do you write most often?
3. Which letters would be least likely to occur? Why?

One approach is to choose a paragraph, a number of paragraphs, or a page from a text.

Think about how to collect data on the frequency of the letters in that paragraph; this will help you work out which letters are used most often. You might use a tally system and mark a line for each time a letter is used. Create a table with each letter of the alphabet and a column to record tally marks and a total.

Think about how best to represent the data to display the information.

Success criteria

I can:

• collect and record data
• construct a display of data that helps others to interpret the dataset
• communicate my findings.