Activities
Looking for statistics that could engage middle school students? Here are problems, provoking questions, lessons, and even a game to stimulate work with data analysis in varied settings.
In this activity, students read graphs and interpret raw data to determine if there is a correlation between drinking soda and the rate of bone fractures in teenage girls. Students are encouraged to organize data into tables to look for associations, but are cautioned that additional factors many influence the appearance of cause and effect.
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In this interactive game, students compute the mean, median, and range of the running times of various trains, then select the one train that will get to the destination on time. Players extend their basic understanding of these statistics as they try to find the most reliable train for the trip. Students can select one of three levels of difficulty. There are tips for students as well as a full explanation of the key instructional ideas underlying the game.
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Information can be represented in many ways, and this applet allows the user to represent data about the states using colors. The state with the highest data value is darkest; other states are shaded proportionally. Several sets of data are already entered and available for examination: state population, land area, representatives in Congress, gasoline usage, and more. Users can eliminate the data from any state in order to note the consequences, or enter their own data. A box plot accompanies each map representation, showing the data in a different but corresponding format.
How is statistics used in the real world? This activity introduces the capture-recapture method as a statistical tool used by fish and wildlife experts to estimate the size of populations. Students are challenged to estimate the total number of fish in a pond, given the numbers of fish initially tagged and released, the tagged fish recaptured, and the total number of recaptured fish.
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In this lesson, students use information from NBA statistics to make and compare box-and-whisker plots. After reviewing the concepts of minimum, maximum, median, upper quartile and lower quartile, students create three box-and-whisker plots for sets of data on the heights and weights of basketball players. In each case, the students consider the effects of changing one piece of the data, such as eliminating the height of the tallest player. Detailed instructions for the lesson, assessment options, and all materials are included.
This activity opens with a graph that depicts the life expectancies of men and women born in the United States. Students are asked to estimate the greatest difference between genders in the years between 1920 and 1996. The Hint tells students how they should read the graph to determine the life expectancy for a woman born in 1920. Related questions encourage students to think about how the shape of the curve might be affected by changing the scale, as well as variables that affect trends in life expectancy.
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This activity opens with a bar graph depicting low, middle, and high estimates of U.S. population growth between 2000 and 2100. Students are given two statements about population growth and asked to decide if the data support those statements. Related questions ask students to look for trends in additional data representations.
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To answer this question, students must interpret a bar graph to determine the average number of hours teenagers work per week. Related questions ask students to calculate averages for additional data sets. The Did You Know feature offers interesting statistics about the hourly wages and annual salaries of various occupations.
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This activity offers students a chance to compare soda prices from two stores using data displayed on a scatter plot. Students are shown how the line y = x can be used to analyze the data and draw a conclusion. The activity contains two different ways to find the solution, questions related to analyzing similar data from other fields, and family activities using data collected in the home.
MSP full record
This activity offers students a chance to compare soda prices from two stores using data displayed on a scatter plot. Students are shown how the line y = x can be used to analyze the data and draw a conclusion. The activity contains two different ways to find the solution, questions related to analyzing similar data from other fields, and family activities using data collected in the home.
(From Science NetLinks — MSP full record)
In this activity, students investigate population projections from 1990-2100 using data from the U.S. Census Bureau Web. Using the five specific population pyramids, students investigate population projection data for the United States over a 110-year period. They examine how the population data is distributed over time and explain what factors might contribute to these trends. An activity sheet and thoughtful questions, included in the lesson plan, guide the class investigation.
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Copyright
June 2008 — The Ohio State University. This material is based upon work
supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0424671. Any
opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this
material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of
the National Science Foundation.
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This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons License.
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