Mathematical Reasoning

Lesson 17: Dot Plots, Histograms, and Box Plots

Weekly Focus: plots

LESSON 17: Dot Plots, Histograms, and Box Plots Weekly Skill: interpret and create

Lesson Summary: For the Warm Up, students will solve a problem about donations. In Activity 1, they will learn
and practice vocabulary about plots and histograms. In Activity 2, they will interpret box plots. In Activity 3, they
will do problems in the workbook. Activity 4 is an application activity about inches of snow. The homework is the
review word problems for data measurement. There is also an exit ticket. Estimated time for the lesson is 2 hours.

Materials Needed for Lesson 17:

 Video (length 10:00) on box plots. The video is required for teachers and optional for students:
 Handout 17.1, Notes on Box Plots (attached)
 Worksheet 17.2 with answers (attached), making box and whisker plots
 Worksheet 17.3 Answer to Application Problem (attached)
 Mathematical Reasoning Test Preparation for the 2014 GED Test Student Book (pages 38-39 and 40-47)
and Workbook (pages 54-55).
 Exit ticket (attached)

 Teacher Notes:
o You can add more examples if you feel students need them before they work. Any ideas that
concretely relate to their lives make good examples.
o When you do a worksheet, look for an easier problem to do together first as it may not
necessarily be the first problem. Also, students may only have time to do part of the worksheets
in class and the rest can be assigned as homework.

Objectives: Students will be able to:

 Solve the review word problem

 Understand and interpret dot plots, box plots, and histograms
 Create a box plot

ACES Skills Addressed: N, CT, LS, ALS

CCRS Mathematical Practices Addressed: Building Solution Pathways, Mathematical Fluency, Model with Math
Levels of Knowing Math Addressed: Intuitive, Abstract, Pictorial, and Application

Notes:
You can add more examples if you feel students need them before they work. Any ideas that concretely
relates to their lives make good examples.

For more practice as a class, feel free to choose some of the easier problems from the worksheets to do
together. The “easier” problems are not necessarily at the beginning of each worksheet. Also, you may
decide to have students complete only part of the worksheets in class and assign the rest as homework or
extra practice.

The GED Math test is 115 minutes long and includes approximately 46 questions. The questions have a focus
on quantitative problem solving (45%) and algebraic problem solving (55%).

Students must be able to understand math concepts and apply them to new situations, use logical
reasoning to explain their answers, evaluate and further the reasoning of others, represent real world

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Lesson 17: Dot Plots, Histograms, and Box Plots

problems algebraically and visually, and manipulate and solve algebraic expressions.

This computer-based test includes questions that may be multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, choose from a
drop-down menu, or drag-and-drop the response from one place to another.

The purpose of the GED test is to provide students with the skills necessary to either further their education or
be ready for the demands of today’s careers.

Lesson 17 Warm-up: Solve the donation question Time: 10 Minutes

Write on the board: Lynelle donates money to charitable organizations every year. This year
she gave ¼ of her donations to the Red Cross, 15% to a homeless shelter, and 3/5 to the
United way. Her total donations are $240.

Basic Questions:
 How much did she donate to the Red Cross? (1/4 of $240 = $60)
 To the homeless shelter? (0.15 x $240 = 36)
 To the United Way? (3/5 = 6/10 =60% = 0.6 x $240 = $144)

Extension Questions:
 Make a graph to represent Lynelle’s donations.
o Let students start and see if they think of making a circle graph. It should look about
like this:

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Lesson 17: Dot Plots, Histograms, and Box Plots

Lesson 17 Activity 1: Vocabulary Time: 15-20 Minutes

1. Write the vocabulary words on the board: dot plots, box plots, quartile, and histogram.
2. You will teach the vocabulary with class examples and the student book pages 38-39.
3. For dot plot, write a number line on the board. Ask five students how many children they
have. For each response, put a dot above the number line at the correct spot. Explain that
dot plots consist of a number line and dots are used to visually see the outcomes.
a. Ask students what the median of the dot plot is. (It’s the middle number)
b. Ask what the minimum number is. (It will be the lowest and could be 0)
c. Ask what the maximum is. (It’s the highest number)
d. Now find the median of the bottom half. That is the first quartile.
e. Now find the median of the top half. That is the third quartile.
f. Draw a box plot to represent these measurements.
4. A histogram is a bar graph in which each bar represents a range of frequency. Unlike dot
plots, they are often used to represent large amounts of data. See the example on page 39.
5. Note to teacher: Using data from the class is preferable to explain dot plots and box plots.
However, if you prefer, you can use the example on page 38 to explain these types of
graphs.
6. Do the exercises on pages 38-39 in the student book together.

Lesson 17 Activity 2: Interpret Box and Whisker Plot Time: 15-20 Minutes

1. Give students Handout 17.1. Go through the example together.

2. Practice interpreting a box and whisker plot by doing Worksheet 17.2. Circulate to help and if
someone finishes early, he/she can do answers on the board as long as other students are
almost done.

Lesson 1 Activity 3: Word Problems Time: 25 Minutes

Have students work independently in the workbook pages 54-55. Circulate to help. Review
any questions that students found challenging. Point out the graphs for questions 14-16 in
which the dot plot was converted to a histogram. This should help students understand
both.

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Lesson 17: Dot Plots, Histograms, and Box Plots

Lesson 17 Application: Graph the Inches of Snow Time: 15 Minutes

1. Write on the board: In one week in January, Minneapolis got this many inches of snow on
Monday through Sunday: 2 inches, 5 inches, 3 inches, 1 inch, 3 inches, 2 inches, and 5 inches.
2. Make a Dot Plot with the above information.
a. Help the students get started by asking them what they should do first. (Make a
number line)
b. The results should look like the example below:

  

   

    

1 2 3 4 5
Inches of Snow

3. Make a Box Plot that includes the median, Quartile 1, and Quartile 3.
a. Before you start, ask students how to find the median (by counting from left or right to
the middle).
b. Results should be like Worksheet 17.3.

Lesson 17 Exit Ticket Time: 5 Minutes

Debate as a class or in pairs/ small groups which type of graph to use for the scenarios
provided in the attached exit ticket (have them give reasons for their choices).

Answers:
1) Box plot
2) Dot plot
3) Histogram

Lesson 17 Homework: Review of Data Measurement and Time: 30-40 Minutes

Analysis
There will not be a lesson to review the data measurement and analysis lessons. Students
should do pages 40 to 47 of the student book on their own at home.

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 Mathematical Reasoning

Lesson 17: Dot Plots, Histograms, and Box Plots

Handout
Name _____________________ 17.1—Example of _________________________
Date Box Plot

Making and Understanding Box and Whisker Plots - Step-by-Step Lesson

Problem: Draw the box and whisker plot for the data set:

40, 42, 28, 38, 41, 39, 40, 47, 44

Explanation:

Box and whisker plots contain 5 key pieces of data: The range, minimum, median,
lower quartile, upper quartile, and maximum.

Step 1) Order the data and find the range. The data in order (lowest to highest)
would be:

28, 38, 39, 40, 40, 41, 42, 44, 47

This means the range (highest to lowest) would be: 28-47.

We subtract the largest value by the smallest value: 47 – 28 = 19 (range)

Step 2) Find the median (middle number)

The median is the middle value. If there are an odd number of items, it is simple
because there will be just one middle number. If there are an even number of
items, we would average the two middle numbers. There are 9 pieces of data
(odd), so the middle number will have 4 integers above and below it:

28, 38, 39, 40, 40, 41, 42, 44, 47

Median can be determined by the equation: ½ (n + 1), n is the number of data

values (9)

½ (9 + 1) = 5 or 5th data value.

The median is: 40

Step 3) Find the lower quartile:

The lower quartile is the median of the lower half of data. The lower half of the
data consists of (28, 38, 39, 40) When you have an even number of data, take the
average of the middle number numbers = 38.5

Step 4) Find the upper quartile.

The upper quartile is the median of the upper half of data. The upper half of the
data consists of (41, 42, 44, 47). 43 is the median of lower half of the data set.

Tons of Free Math Worksheets at: © www.mathworksheetsland.com

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 Mathematical Reasoning

Lesson 17: Dot Plots, Histograms, and Box Plots

Handout 17.1 [cont.]—Example of Box Plot

Name _____________________ Date _________________________

Step 5) Find the average: 39.88. Add up all the data and divide by the number of
pieces of data you have (9).

Step 6) It is time to visualize this data. We have all the values we need.

a) Make a range chart. (28 – 47)

b) Draw three large lines to indicate the minimum, maximum, and median (40).

c) Draw a box from the median to the lower quartile (38.5) and enclose the box.

d) Draw a box from the median to the upper quartile (43) and enclose the box.

28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47

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Lesson 17: Dot Plots, Histograms, and Box Plots

Worksheet 17.2—Practicing Box Plots

The above two values are used to find the __________________.

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Lesson 17: Dot Plots, Histograms, and Box Plots

Worksheet 17.2—Practicing Box Plots Answers

1. 20

2. 18

3. 22

4. 17

5. 23.2

6. Range.

7. 6.2

8. 75%

9. 25%

10. 50%

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Lesson 17: Dot Plots, Histograms, and Box Plots

Worksheet 17.3 Application Activity Box Plot Answer

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Lesson 17: Dot Plots, Histograms, and Box Plots

Exit Ticket

Would a dot plot, histogram or box plot work best for the data in the following scenarios?

1) An economic website wants to publish a graph that reflects annual incomes of government
workers in Minnesota last year. They want to highlight the range of salaries of workers in the
middle 50% of the sample.

2) A manager surveys employees to see if they prefer work events that include breakfast, brunch,
lunch or dinner. She wants her graph to show which is most popular.

3) The MN Department of Natural Resources is monitoring how thick the ice is over Lake
Minnetonka from December-April. They measure the ice’s thickness every week, and want to
make a graph that groups their measurements by ranges of ice thickness.

Exit Ticket

Would a dot plot, histogram or box plot work best for the data in the following scenarios?

1) An economic website wants to publish a graph that reflects annual incomes of government
workers in Minnesota last year. They want to highlight the range of salaries of workers in the
middle 50% of the sample.

2) A manager surveys employees to see if they prefer work events that include breakfast, brunch,
lunch or dinner. She wants her graph to show which is most popular.

3) The MN Department of Natural Resources is monitoring how thick the ice is over Lake
Minnetonka from December-April. They measure the ice’s thickness every week, and want to
make a graph that groups their measurements by ranges of ice thickness.

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