2013-04-18 NCTM Stats Reasoning MS Handouts PDF
2013-04-18 NCTM Stats Reasoning MS Handouts PDF
2013-04-18 NCTM Stats Reasoning MS Handouts PDF
MATHEMATICAL GOALS
This lesson unit is intended to help you assess how well students are able to:
• Calculate the mean, median, mode, and range from a frequency chart.
• Use a frequency chart to describe a possible data set, given information on the mean, median,
mode, and range.
INTRODUCTION
This lesson unit is structured in the following way:
• Before the lesson, students work individually on an assessment task designed to reveal their
current understanding and difficulties. You then review their responses and create questions for
students to consider when improving their work.
• After a whole-class introduction, students work in small groups on a collaborative task, matching
bar charts with statistical tables.
• To end the lesson there is a whole-class discussion.
• In a follow-up lesson, students again work alone on a task similar to the initial assessment task.
MATERIALS REQUIRED
• Each student will need a copy of the two assessment tasks: Penalty Shoot-Out and Boy Bands, a
mini-whiteboard, a pen, and an eraser.
• Each small group of students will need Card Set: Bar Charts, Card Set: Statistics Tables (already
cut-up), a large sheet of paper, and a glue stick.
• There is a projector resource to support whole-class discussions.
TIME NEEDED
15 minutes before the lesson for the assessment task, a 90-minute lesson, and 15 minutes in a follow-
up lesson (or for homework). Timings given are only approximate. Exact timings will depend on the
needs of the class.
assessment lesson. This will give you an The graph shows, for example, that four people only scored one goal with their six shots.
8
opportunity to assess the work, and to find out 7
6
Frequency
the kinds of difficulties students have with it. 5
4
Read through the questions and try to b. Complete the table with values for the Mean, Median, Mode, and Range of scores.
answer them as carefully as you can. Explain how you calculate each answer.
Mode score
the next lesson they will work on a similar task, Student Materials Mean, Median, Mode, and Range S-1
© 2012 MARS, Shell Center, University of Nottingham
which should help them. Explain to students 2. There is another penalty shoot-out.
Use the table of results to draw a possible bar chart of the scores:
,*+-.+/(0
Median score 3.5 %
confidently. This is their goal. Mode score 4
$
#
Range of scores 4 "
!
Assessing students’ responses 3
! " # $ % &
'()*+
Collect students’ responses to the task. Make
some notes on what their work reveals about Show all your work.
We suggest that you do not score students’ work. The research shows that this will be
counterproductive, as it will encourage students to compare their scores and distract their attention
from what they can do to improve their mathematics.
Instead, help students to progress by summarizing their difficulties as a series of questions. Some
suggestions for these are given in the Common issues table on the next page. These have been drawn
from common difficulties observed in trials of this unit.
We suggest you make a list of your own questions, based on your students’ work. We recommend
Student Materials
Alpha June 2012
Mean, Median, Mode, and Range
© 2012 MARS, Shell Center, University of Nottingham
S-2
you either:
• Write one or two questions on each student’s work, or
• Give each student a printed version of your list of questions, and highlight the questions for each
individual student.
If you do not have time to do this, you could select a few questions that will be of help to the majority
of students and write these on the board when you return the work to the students.
Uses incorrect values when calculating the • How many goals were scored?
mean • Six goals were scored five times. So what is
For example: The student finds the total of the the total number of goals? Compare this to
frequencies rather than the total number of goals. your total, what do you notice?
Or: The student divides by six rather than the total • Imagine writing the scores out as a list. From
frequency. this list, how would you work out the mean?
Or: The student adds the scores:
(1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6) and divides this total by 6.
Confuses the position of the median with the • The median is the middle score when all the
value for the median scores are in order. Is this what you have
For example: The student adds one to the total found?
frequency and divides by two to give a median of • Try writing the scores in order:
8.5 (Q1b). 1,1,1,1,2,2,3,……
Or: The student just divides the frequency by two Which is the middle score?
(Q1b). How could you do this directly from the
Or: The student assumes the median is 3.5, half frequency graph without writing a list?
way between 1 and 6
Or: The student writes two values for the median,
3 and 4.
Presents the range as two figures, the highest • What calculation is needed to obtain the
and the lowest scores range?
Calculates the range in frequencies rather than • What was the highest number of goals scored?
the range of goals scored. • What was the lowest number of goals scored?
Reads off the frequency of the tallest bar as the • Which score was the most popular? How can
mode, rather than the score you tell?
For example: The student gives the mode as 5
Q1b.
Draws a bar chart that satisfies none or some • Check that your bar chart works for all the
of the criteria given in the table (Q2) values in the table. What is the
For example: The student draws a bar chart with a mean/median/mode/range?
mode of 4 but the other values in the table are not • Can you use the bar chart to draw a frequency
satisfied. table?
Completes the task • Can you produce a different bar chart (to Q2)
The student needs an extension task that describes the same data measures? What is
the same and what is different?
Many students may be aware of rating systems used on popular websites. Ask students to name a
computer game that most people know. If more than one computer game is suggested then you may
Projector Resources: Mean, Median, Mode, and Range P-1
want to ask the class to vote on which one they want to rate.
Once the computer game has been agreed upon, ask students to rate the game by writing a score
between 1 and 6 on their whiteboards (if you prefer, you could use pieces of paper or card rather than
whiteboards.)
How would you rate the game on a scale of 1 to 6 where 1 = poor and 6 = great?
On your whiteboard [paper] show me your score for the game. It must be whole number e.g. 2½
is not allowed.
The results of the student survey will be used to produce a bar chart from which the process of using
the bar chart to find the mean, median, mode, and range will be discussed.
Before you do this, question students on efficient ways of recording the data collected in the class.
The focus here is on an efficient method for collecting the scores rather than different ways of
displaying the data.
You have each got a score for the game. How can we record the scores for the class on the
board?
Students may suggest writing a list of the responses or creating a tally. Discuss the benefits of using a
list or tally when the data is not being collected simultaneously e.g. surveying makes of cars driving
past a certain point. Emphasize the difference between this kind of data collection and the data that
has just been collected by the class, whilst highlighting the importance of using an efficient method.
If students have not already suggested it, introduce the idea of a frequency table and check that
students understand the term ‘Frequency’:
In math, what does the word ‘Frequency’ mean?
In this case, can you think of an equivalent phrase?
Why do we use ‘Frequency’ instead of (the equivalent phrase)?
[Frequency is a general term that can be used when working with data. It is usually an
abbreviation of a longer, more specific phrase.]
/'0"# ) * + , - .
!"#$%#&'(
2
1
&
Mean score
,*+-.+/(0
%
$ Median score
# Mode score
"
!
Range of scores
3
! " # $ % &
'()*+
Use the scores on the students’ whiteboards to complete the frequency table, then ask a volunteer to
come out and complete the bars on the bar chart.
We are now going to find the mean, median, mode, and range of scores for the game.
Check that students understand the meaning of the terms ‘mean’, ‘median’, ‘mode’, and ‘range’. Ask
students to come out and demonstrate the four calculations using the information collected and notice
whether they choose to use the frequency table or the bar chart. Emphasize using the bar chart
directly as this is what the students will be doing when completing the collaborative task:
In this lesson you will be matching information displayed in a bar chart with values for the mean,
median, mode and range.
Without writing anything down, how can we calculate the median, mode, and range from the bar
chart?
Students may struggle to find the median directly from the bar chart and may prefer to write the data
points in order and cross out until the ‘middle’ number is reached. If this is the case, spend some time
exploring different strategies for finding the ‘median’ directly from the bar chart. Depending on the
data collected, it may also be appropriate to discuss the method of finding the median score where
there is no ‘middle number’.
Hold a discussion on calculating the mean:
How can we calculate the mean score?
It is likely that students will need to write some values down when finding the mean. Spend some
time discussing possible ways of calculating the mean score using the bar chart, without writing out a
list of the raw scores, for example by multiplying frequencies by scores then summing.
Median score 3
Mode score 6
Range of scores 5
5
4
3
2
1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Score
Range of scores 4
5
4
3
2
1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Score
B1 8 S2
7
6 Mean score 3
Frequency
5
4 Median score 3
3
Mode score 3
2
1 Range of scores 2
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Score
8
B2 S6
7
6
Mean score 4
Frequency
5
4 Median score 3
3
2 Mode score 3
1 Range of scores 4
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Score
B3 S1
8
7 Mean score 3
6
Median score 4
Frequency
5
4 Mode score 4
3
2 Range of scores 3
1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Score
B4 S3
8
7 Mean score 3
6
Median score 2
Frequency
5
4 Mode score 1
3
2 Range of scores 5
1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Score
Frequency
5
4 Mode score 4
3
2 Range of scores 3
1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Score
B6 S4
8
Mean score 4
7
6 Median score 4
Frequency
5
4
Mode score 4
3 Range of scores 4
2
1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Score
B7 S9
8
7 Mean score 3
6
Median score 3
Frequency
5
4 Mode score 2
3
2 Range of scores 3
1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Score
B8 S12
8
7 Mean score 4
6
Median score 4
Frequency
5
4 Mode score 5
3
2 Range of scores 4
1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Score
Frequency
5
4 Mode score 2
3
2 Range of scores 5
1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Score
8
B10 S10
7
6
Mean score 3
Frequency
5
4 Median score 3.5
3
2 Mode score 1
1 Range of scores 4
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Score
B11 S8
8
7 Mean score 2.5
6
Median score 2
Frequency
5
4 Mode score 2
3
2 Range of scores 4
1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Score
5
4 Mode score 3
3
Range of scores 3
2
1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Score
8
7
6
Frequency
5
4
3
2
1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Score
b. Complete the table with values for the Mean, Median, Mode, and Range of scores.
Explain how you calculate each answer.
Mean score
----------
Median score
----------
Mode score
----------
Range of scores
----------
8
7
Mean score 3
6
Frequency
Median score 3.5 5
4
Mode score 4
3
Range of scores 4 2
1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Score
Frequency
Frequency
5 5
4 4
3 3
2 2
1 1
0 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6
Score Score
B3 B4
8 8
7 7
6 6
Frequency
Frequency
5 5
4 4
3 3
2 2
1 1
0 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6
Score Score
B5 B6
8 8
7 7
6 6
Frequency
Frequency
5 5
4 4
3 3
2 2
1 1
0 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6
Score Score
Frequency
Frequency
5 5
4 4
3 3
2 2
1 1
0 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6
Score Score
B9 B10
8 8
7 7
6 6
Frequency
Frequency
5 5
4 4
3 3
2 2
1 1
0 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6
Score Score
B11 B12
8 8
7 7
6 6
Frequency
Frequency
5 5
4 4
3 3
2 2
1 1
0 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6
Score Score
S3 S4
S5 S6
S9 S10
S11 S12
8
7
6
Frequency
5
4
3
2
1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Score
a. How many children were involved in the quiz? Show how you obtain your answer.
b. Complete the table with values for the Mean, Median, Mode, and Range of scores.
Explain how you calculate each answer.
Mean score
----------
Median score
----------
Mode score
----------
Range of scores
----------
8
7
Mean score 4
6
Frequency
5
Median score 3.5
4
Mode score 3 3
2
Range of scores 4 1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Score
Score 1 2 3 4 5 6
Frequency
8
7
6
Mean score
Frequency
5
4 Median score
3 Mode score
2
1
Range of scores
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Score
We are grateful to the many teachers, in the UK and the US, who trialed earlier versions
of these materials in their classrooms, to their students, and to
Judith Mills, Mathew Crosier, and Alvaro Villanueva who contributed to the design.
This development would not have been possible without the support of
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
We are particularly grateful to
Carina Wong, Melissa Chabran, and Jamie McKee
Below are the heights of the players on the University of Maryland women's basketball team for the 2012-2013 season and
the heights of the players on the women's field hockey team for the 2012 season. (Accessed at
http://www.umterps.com/sports/w-fieldh/mtt/md-w-fieldh-mtt.html , http://www.umterps.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/md-w-
baskbl-mtt.html on 1/13/13) Note: it is typical for a women's field hockey team to have more players than a women's
basketball team would.
a. Based on visual inspection of the dotplots, which group appears to have the larger average height? Which group
appears to have the greater variability in the heights?
b. Compute the mean and mean absolute deviation (MAD) for each group. Do these values support your answers in
part (a)?
c. How many of the 12 basketball players are shorter than the tallest field hockey player?
d. Imagine that an athlete from one of the two teams told you she needs to go to practice. You estimate that she is about
65 inches tall. If you had to pick, would you think that she was a field hockey player or that she was a basketball
player? Explain your reasoning.
e. The women on the Maryland field hockey team are not a random sample of all female college field hockey players.
Similarly, the women on the Maryland basketball team are not a random sample of all female college basketball
players. However, for purposes of this task, suppose that these two groups can be regarded as random samples of
all female college field hockey players and all female college basketball players, respectiviely. If these were random
samples, would you think that female college basketball players are typically taller than female college field hockey
players? Explain your decision using answers to the previous questions and/or additional analysis.
Commentary
In this task, students are able to conjecture about the differences in the two groups from a strictly visual perspective and
then support their comparisons with appropriate measures of center and variability. This will reinforce that much can be
gleaned simply from visual comparison of appropraite graphs, particularly those of similar scale. Students are also
encouraged to consider how certain measurements and observation values from one group compare in the context of the
other group. As a possible extension, students can investigate if these distributions are in fact similar to the distributions of
heights of women's field hockey and women's basketball players.
Task 1341 is similar to this task and looks at weights of two groups of offensive linemen. In that task, the difference in
MAD's is also about 2. However, the variability for the two groups was judged to be similar because in the context of that
task, a difference of 2 pounds is small realtive to the weight values, which ranged from 250 to 340 pounds. In this task, a
difference of 2 inches is judged as meaningful relative to the height values in the data sets.
Solution: Solution
a. The center of the basketball distribution is much higher on the number line than the center of the field hockey
distribution, so at first glance, it appears that the basketball group has the higher average. Similarly, the values
for the basketball distribution appear to have a greater range and are less concentrated than the field hockey
distribution, so it appears that the basketball group has greater variability in its observations.
b. Field Hockey: mean = 64.76, MAD = 1.75; Basketball: mean = 72.5, MAD = 3.58. These values do support the
conjectures from Part (a).
c. The tallest field hockey player is 70 inches. Four of the basketball players are less than 70 inches (65, 67, 68,
and 69).
d. At 65 inches, she is more likely to be a field hockey player. Using the summary measures, 65 inches is
approximately the mean for the field hockey players, so she would be a field hockey player of average height. A
height of 65 inches is more unusual for the basketball team as that value is just over 2 MAD's below the mean.
Using the raw data and a probability argument, 3 of the 25 field hockey players are 65 inches (12%) and only
one out of the 12 basketball players is 65 inches (8.3%)
e. Yes, it appears that women's college basketball players are typically taller than women's college field hockey
players. In addition to any arguments/statements made earlier regarding the dotplots and summary measures,
one could also mention that 2 of the basket players are taller than the tallest field hockey player (and similar
3
comparative arguments).
Alignment 1: 8.SP.A.4
All the students at a middle school were asked to identify their favorite academic subject and whether they were in 7th grade or 8th grade.
Here are the results:
Is there an association between favorite academic subject and grade for students at this school? Support your answer by calculating
appropriate relative frequencies using the given data.
Commentary:
Either row percentages or column percentages are appropriate for the solution, since there is no clear explanatory/response relationship
between the variables. Whether the student sees a strong association or not is less important than whether his or her answer uses the data
appropriately and understands that an association means that the distribution of favorite subject is different for 7th graders and 8th
graders.
Another approach is to observe that 39% of the students are 7th graders. If grade is not associated with favorite subject, you would expect
about 39% of the students picking a particular subject as their favorite to be 7th graders.
Row relative frequencies (that is, distribution of the variable “Favorite Subject” for each grade) are given in the table below.
There is some association between favorite subject and grade. A higher percentage of 7th graders than 8th graders prefer English
and History (and - to a lesser extent - “other” subjects), while a higher percentage of 8th graders than 7th graders prefer Math/Science.
The circles ● show old trees and the triangles ▲ show young trees.
Tom wants to know how many trees there are of each type, but says it would
take too long counting them all, one-by-one.
1. What method could he use to estimate the number of trees of each type?
Explain your method fully.
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CANDY BARS
A group of friends are planning to sell candy bars at the school shop.
They conduct a small survey among 30 people, asking the question:
How many candy bars do you eat in a typical week ?
Here are their results:
1. Draw graphs or charts to compare the results for males and females.
2. Chris says:
“ We have found that the total number of bars eaten by all the males is
183, and the total number eaten by all the females is 92. In general,
this means that men eat more candy than women.”
(b) Write down one conclusion (comparing males and females) that is supported
by the data. Show any work you do.
Illustrative Mathematics
Alignment 1: 8.SP.A.1
Do taller people tend to have bigger hands? To investigate this question, each student in your class should measure his or her hand span
(in cm) and height (in inches). Record these values in the table below.
a. Create a clearly labeled graph that displays the relationship between height and hand span.
b. Based on the graph, how would you answer the question about whether taller people tend to have bigger hands?
c. Based on your graph, would you describe the relationship between hand span and height as linear or nonlinear? Explain your
choice.
Commentary:
For purposes of consistency, it is recommended that one person be in charge of taking the measurements. This role may be taken
by the instructor, or one of the students in class.
For consistency, measure hand span of right hand for all students.
To measure hand span, spread out fingers as much as possible, and then measure the distance (cm) between tip of thumb to tip of
little finger.
Height should be measured without shoes and without anything on the head that would inflate height (besides hair). For those
wearing religious headwear, be careful not to measure the height of the headwear.
Notice that hand span is measured in centimeter which is a finer unit of measurement, to account for the fact that a difference in
hand span is on a relatively finer scale compared to difference in height, which can be measured in inches (and is typically
measured in feet and inches).
Typically, the association between hand span and height has observed to be positive, moderately strong, and linear, with relatively
few outliers. That is, people with larger hand spans tend to be taller. Also, depending, there may be some noticeable separation of
males and females, with heights and hand spans of females being towards the left bottom corner of the scatterplot, and those for the
males being towards the right top corner. Of course, there may be outliers in this case, too.
Solution: Solution
Solutions will vary depending on the actual data values collected by the class. Below is a solution based on the following hypothetical
data set:
a. Here is a scatterplot showing the relationship between height and hand span.
b. Each dot represents a student, and the position of the dot with regard to the horizontal axis represents the student’s hand span
(cm), whereas the position of the dot with regard to the vertical axis represents the student’s height. We can see that dots with
lower hand span values also tend to have lower values for height; similarly dots with higher hand span values also tend to have
higher values for height. Overall, we can see that there is an upward trend in the scatterplot. This shows that taller people tend
to have bigger hand spans.
c. The overall form of the relationship between height and hand span appears to be linear, except for the student with a hand span
of 28cm and height of 70inches. We can say this because a line seems to be the most appropriate pattern to represent how
height is changing with hand span.
8.SP.1 Hand span and height (has both reviews) is licensed by Illustrative Mathematics
under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
Illustrative Mathematics
8.SP US Airports
Alignment 1: 8.SP.A.3
Not yet tagged
The scatter plot below shows the relationship between the number of airports in a state and the population of that state
according to the 2010 Census. Each dot represents a single state.
a. How would you characterize the relationship between the number of airports in a state and the state's population?
(Select one):
i. The variables are positively correlated; states with higher populations tend to have fewer airports.
ii. The variables are negatively correlated; states with higher populations tend to have fewer airports.
iii. The variables are positively correlated; states with higher populations tend to have more airports.
iv. The variables are negatively correlated; states with higher populations tend to have more airports.
LaToya uses the function y = (1.35 × 10 −6 )x + 6.1to model the relationship between the number of airports, y
and the population in a state, x.
b. How many airports does LaToya’s model predict for a state with a population of 30 million people? [______].
c. What does the number 6.1 that appears in LaToya’s function mean in the context of airports vs. populations? (Select
one.)
i. The average number of airports in a state is 6.1.
iii. The model predicts a population of 6.1 people in a state with no airports.
vi. The model predicts 6.1 more airports, on average, for each additional person in a state.
vii. The model predicts 6.1 fewer airports, on average, for each additional person in a state.
viii. The number 6.1 cannot be interpreted in this context.
d. What does the number 1.35 × 10 −6 that appears in LaToya’s function mean in the context of airports vs.
populations? (Select one.)
i. The average number of airports in a state is 1.35 × 10 −6 .
vi. The model predicts 1.35 × 10 −6 more airports, on average, for each additional person in a state.
vii. The model predicts 1.35 × 10 −6 fewer airports, on average, for each additional person in a state.
On average, a state in the contiguous 48 US states has 1 additional airport for every
additional people.
Commentary
Purpose
This is one of two assessment tasks illustrating the similarities and differences between the 8th grade standards in
Functions and in Statistics and Probability. The first, 8.F Mail Truck , involves a situation that can be modeled exactly with a
linear function. The second, 8.SP US Airports , uses a linear function to model a relationship between two quantities that
show statistical variation and do not have an exact linear relationship.
In 8.SP US Airports , each additional person in the state does not directly correspond to a portion of an airport, but the
relationship can be modeled using a linear association, and the model can be used to make predictions about the number
of airports in states with a given population. In 8.F Mail Truck , each additional day of driving does correspond to exactly the
same increase in the number of miles put onto the truck each day.
Cognitive Complexity
Mathematical Content
This task involves constructing a linear function and interpreting its parameters in a context. Thus, this task has a medium
level of complexity.
Mathematical Practice
The task asks students to reason abstractly and quantitatively (MP 2) and directly assesses component skills related to
mathematical modeling (MP 4), namely, interpreting mathematical objects in contexts.
Linguistic Demand
This context in this task requires students to interpret the mathematics in this context, so has a high level of linguistic
complexity.
Stimulus Material
Response Mode
Solution: 1
a. (iii)
b. 46.6 airports
c. (iv)
d. (vi)
e. 700 thousand
30
25
20
15
10
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Score in Test A
1. The mean score for Test A was 19 and the mean score for Test B was 16.
Plot a point to show this on the scatter diagram.
____________________________________________________________________________