Session 1 · SOLVE: Organise Information
Collect and clean
- 25 minCollect the data using your plan: run the survey or the reaction-time test, read the rain gauge log, or do a ten-minute bird count. Record every value, even strange ones.
- 10 minClean it: scan for impossible values (a sleep time of 90 hours, a reaction of 0 cm) and typing mistakes. Decide as a group what to do with each one, and write down why.
- 15 minEnter the data into a table or spreadsheet. Count your values: do you have as many as you planned?
Session 2 · SOLVE: Link Ideas
Build a picture of the data
- 10 minMatch the graph to the data: dot plot for numbers, bar graph for categories, time-series graph for data that changes over days or weeks.
- 10 minBuild a human or sticky-note dot plot on the floor or wall. Where is the middle? Where do the dots bunch? Any lonely dots?
- 20 minDraw your own graph on paper or in a spreadsheet with a title, labelled axes, units and who the data came from.
- 10 minDescribe it in three sentences: its shape (one peak or two, symmetrical or skewed), its middle, and its spread.
Getting started
Start with a dot plot on squared paper: one square per dot, with the scale marked first.
Stretch
Make two dot plots on the same scale (two groups, two places, mornings and afternoons) and describe how they differ.
Checkpoint
Clean data in a table, and one accurate graph with every label in place.
Activities for this week
- How long is a minute?: Can we judge one minute without a clock, and do we tend to guess short or long?
- Ten-minute bird count: Which birds are most common in our school grounds, and are there more native birds near native trees?
- Rain gauge and weather log: How much rain falls at our school, and does it really rain more on some days of the week?
- Graph makeover: Can this graph be trusted?
Useful this week
- CensusAtSchool ↗ Real survey data from thousands of NZ students to compare with your class.
- NZ Garden Bird Survey results ↗ National bird-count data to compare with your own count.
- CODAP ↗ Free drag-and-drop tool for graphing and exploring your data.
- Mean, median and mode ↗ Clear examples of the three averages and when to use each.