NCTM
Grades 6-8
Data Analysis and Probability
Formulate questions that can be addressed with data and collect, organize, and display relevant data to answer them
Lessons (6)
Introduces students to quartiles and box plots.
Utilizes and reinforces concepts of probability, mean, line plots, experimental data, and chaos in analyzing a forest fire simulation.
Introduction and fine points of using bar graphs and histograms.
Considers probability concepts on the basis of statistics in professional sports.
Looks at statistics and data analysis concepts from the practical questions that arise in everyday life.
Introduces students to stem-and-leaf plots and calculating the mean, median, and mode from the plots.
Activities (14)
Students run a simulation of how a fire will spread through a stand of trees, learning about probability and chaos. Parameters: Forest density, wind direction, size of forest.
Run a simulation of how a fire spreads through a stand of trees, learning about probability and chaos. Track the results of multiple burns and use the data to draw conclusions.
Students can create box plots for either built-in or user-specified data as well as experiment with outliers. User may choose to use or not use the median for calculation of interquartile range.
Enter your own data categories and the value of each category to create a pie chart. There are also built in data sets which can be viewed.
Run a simulation of how a fire will spread through a stand of trees, learning about probability and chaos. Parameters: Probability that a tree will set fire to each of its eight neighbors.
Run a simulation of how a fire will spread through a stand of trees, learning about probability and chaos. Parameters: Probability that a tree catches fire if its neighbor is on fire.
View histograms for built-in or user-specified data. Experiment with how the size of the class intervals influences the appearance of the histogram. Parameters: Data sets, class sizes.
Enter data to create a double bar graph, then manipulate the graph's maximum and minimum values.
Create a pie chart, adjusting the size of the divisions using your mouse or by entering values. Parameters: Number of sections, size of sections, whether to use percents or fractions.
PlopIt allows users to build dot plots of data using the mouse. View how the mean, median, and mode change as entries are added to the plot. Parameters: Range for observations.
Plot a bivariate data set, determine the line of best fit for their data, and then check the accuracy of your line of best fit.
Graph ordered pairs and customize the graph title and axis labels. Points are connected from left to right, rather than being connected in the order they are entered.
Plot ordered pairs of numbers, either as a scatter plot or with the dots connected. Points are connected from right to left, rather than being connected in the order they are entered.
View stem-and-leaf plots of your own data, and then practice finding means, medians and modes. Stem and Leaf Plotter is one of the Interactivate assessment explorers.