Dealing with data in the elementary school
http://illuminations.nctm.org/LessonDetail.aspx?ID=L297
A lesson plan for grades 3–5 Mathematics
This project-based unit on statistics furnishes a vehicle for problem solving through real-world data collection and analysis. Students use the mean, mode and median to analyze their data and use graphs to represent their findings. Illuminations provides helpful resources and detailed instructions for completing the lesson.
Students will:
- Identify a research question.
- Predict outcomes.
- Conduct research to test their hypothesis.
- Analyze and present data.
- Propose and justify conclusions and predictions that are based on data and design studies to further investigate the conclusions or predictions.
NCTM Standards and Expectations:
- Collect data using observations, surveys, and experiments.
- Design investigations to address a question and consider how data-collection methods affect the nature of the data set.
- Use conjectures to formulate new questions and plan new studies to answer them.
- Formulate questions, design studies, and collect data about a characteristic shared by two populations or different characteristics within one population.
North Carolina Curriculum Alignment
Mathematics (2004)
Grade 3
- Goal 4: Data Analysis and Probability - The learner will understand and use data and simple probability concepts.
- Objective 4.01: Collect, organize, analyze, and display data (including circle graphs and tables) to solve problems.
Grade 4
- Goal 4: Data Analysis and Probability - The learner will understand and use graphs, probability, and data analysis.
- Objective 4.01: Collect, organize, analyze, and display data (including line graphs and bar graphs) to solve problems.
- Objective 4.02: Describe the distribution of data using median, range and mode.
- Objective 4.04: Design experiments and list all possible outcomes and probabilities for an event.
Grade 5
- Goal 4: Data Analysis and Probability - The learner will understand and use graphs and data analysis.
- Objective 4.01: Collect, organize, analyze, and display data (including stem-and-leaf plots) to solve problems.
- Objective 4.03: Solve problems with data from a single set or multiple sets of data using median, range, and mode.
