LEARN NC

CareerStart lessons: Grade eight

2.8 Working with matrices

By Debbie Brooks, Peggy Dickey, and Jan Sullivan

Provided by CareerStart

Essential question: How can matrices be used to display and interpret data in various careers?

Learning outcomes

Students will organize data from a list using matrices.

Teacher planning

Materials needed

  • Sets of data from various sources (See “Pre-Activities” below.)
  • Calculator for each student
  • Optional: Computer with internet access

Time required for lesson

One class period (Students will need to bring in data before this lesson begins.)

Pre-activities

As homework before the lesson, students will need to find charts containing data sets to work with. Suggestions include:

  • Distance keys from legends on highway maps
  • Weather data from newspapers
  • Lists from social studies textbooks
  • Lists from science textbooks
  • Win/loss records from sports pages
  • Baseball cards
  • Menu items and prices from restaurants
  • Nutritional data from fast food restaurants
  • Data from the U.S. census bureau
  • Overall medal standings from the 2008 Summer Olympics

Activities

  1. Students will have brought in copies of charts from various data sources prior to this lesson. Ask students where they found these pieces of data. (5 minutes)
  2. Ask students what kinds of jobs would need charts similar to the ones they have brought from home. (5 minutes)
  3. Have students organize the data into a matrix with rows and columns so it can be used effectively to find information. Students should label each row and column so each element can be identified easily. You may choose to have students work in groups. (25 minutes)
  4. Have students (or groups) present their matrices to the class (2 – 3 minutes per group).
  5. As a class, brainstorm careers that might use matrices in their line of work. If students need help brainstorming, you may choose to access the following websites:

    For details about a few specific examples, see “Career Information” below.

Career information

Career information comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook.

Market analysts
Market research analysts collect and analyze data. Some analysts are employed by a company and others are independent contractors (self-employed). Analysts research what items consumers want, what prices consumers are willing to pay, and how well competitors’ products are selling. The data gathered can also be used to predict future sales. The data can be organized into matrices to make working with data easier.

  • Education: Bachelor’s degree or master’s degree
  • Pay: $44,000 - $85,000
  • Growth: Faster than average; 22% increase over the next 10 years
Statisticians
Statisticians work in many different areas such as analyzing data collected from experiments in science, determining the number of households who watch a given television show, analyzing surveys measuring unemployment for the government, and compiling statistics on sporting events. Statisticians design many surveys and set the procedures to be followed from how to sample the population to the questions being asked. The data can be organized into matrices. Then, using computers, the data can be analyzed and summarized.

  • Education: Master’s degree in statistics or mathematics
  • Pay: $37,000 - $108,000
  • Growth: Average growth; 9% increase over the next 10 years

North Carolina curriculum alignment

Mathematics (2004)

Grade 9–12 — Algebra 1

  • Goal 3: Data Analysis and Probability - The learner will collect, organize, and interpret data with matrices and linear models to solve problems.