Planning tool

Australian Curriculum Mathematics V9: AC9M9ST05

Numeracy Progression: Interpreting and representing data: P8

At this level, students plan and conduct a statistical investigation that includes the selection and creation of appropriate displays and conducting independent analysis.

Students should be encouraged to generate their own investigation topics that are relevant to their lives or of personal interest. Teachers can use a range of thinking routines to support this process, such as KWHL (Know-Want-How-Learned).

Over time, students can be expected to work independently, both in class and at home, and to present their findings to the class at the conclusion of the project. The investigation should include representations of multiple datasets, including displays that promote meaningful comparison. Statistical tools that students have used over several years should be evident in their work, such as measures of centre and spread, as well as discussion of how the shape of the distribution and any outliers affect these.

It is still important for teachers to provide some scaffolding, but this should be limited to topic selection and planning. Guide students to obtain the required data for their chosen topic or, in some cases, prompt them to consider whether enough useful data is available. If the teacher can see that the student has chosen a suitable topic and useful data has been obtained, the responsibility for collection, presentation and analysis of data should be released to the students. This is an opportunity for them to demonstrate the skills and knowledge acquired across several previous years.

To support students to work effectively, prepare some back-up investigation topics and datasets for any students who hit a roadblock.

Support students by producing an exemplar investigation beforehand, to explicitly demonstrate expected outcomes of a statistical investigation.

Before beginning, provide explicit information on common sources of large and interesting datasets, such as government and UN resources. Practise accessing and analysing contrived subsets of this data. There will likely be natural points at which to discuss sampling methods and whether the data is representative.

Establish a mid-point check-in, and make the expected level of achievement explicit, to allow students to see progress being made. A fellow classmate could be assigned to peer review another student’s project.

When presenting findings to the class, students should be able to justify their choices, both regarding the displays they have chosen, the comparisons made and the kind of analysis carried out. Their conclusion should be supported by the analysis.

Teaching and learning summary:

• Support students to independently design, plan and conduct a statistical investigation.
• Encourage relevant or interesting topics and ensure suitable datasets are available.
• Probe students with questions regarding their choices and the evidence for their conclusions.
• Support students’ independent work with exemplars, guides, check-ins, peer reviews and alternative options.
• Give opportunities for students to report their findings orally, along with a visual presentation, to justify their decisions and provide evidence to support their conclusions.