statistics

Day 113: Mean, Median Mode & How to think about data

Lisa Bejarano 180 Days of Geometry 13-14 ,

This went really well! I gave the students a sheet that listed everyone in the class and they had to fill out eye color, shoe size & average number of texts they send per day. I did this because students sometimes need to be forced to interact with each other and I have a few new students that I wanted everyone to interact with. I also hate it when students don’t know all of their peers names, so I try to encourage this when I can.

Then, it got interesting. I asked the class to find the mean eye color. They started to work, a few asked how to find the mean and I explained that they should add them all up and divide by the number of numbers. They grabbed calculators & looked back at their data, confused. I shut up and listened to them….”that doesn’t make sense” “How do I add colors?”, etc…

…enter discussion on qualitative vs quantitative data, considering the information when trying to describe the data, discussions on how to summarize qualitative data. Awesomeness.

Next we looked at shoe size: students immediately complained that men & women have different shoe sizing systems. We considered converting them all to men’s sizes, then we talked about how useful this information would be….other students suggested separating them into separate averages for men & women. The class agreed that this would provide more useful information.

For texts we discussed outliers and how they impact the mean. We related it to grades. The class decided that the median would be best to describe this data set.

We also made a fun foldable. It was a worthwhile day considering the purpose in interpreting data as well as reviewing basics.

2014-03-05 13.24.20 2014-03-05 13.52.46

day 111& 112: prediction equation applications & Histograms

Lisa Bejarano 180 Days of Geometry 13-14 , ,

I had a sub both of these days because my stepdaughter was having a baby! They are both doing well!

day 111: I gave the class a set of problems where they were given enough data to write a prediction equation, explain the meaning of the slope and use the equation to make predictions. Students said it was horrible, but they say that a lot when they have a sub.

day 112: I have a nice set of problems that walk students through bar graphs vs histograms, qualitative vs quantitative data, and using statistics to describe the data. Students actually said this was worth their time and understandable.

Planning the next six weeks of Geometry

Lisa Bejarano Curriculum & Learning Targets , , , , ,

I really struggled planning the next six weeks of the school year for geometry. Although I hate it, the big fat state testing happens mid March. Probability & statistics is addressed heavily, and since my students have not seen it much, and it is important, and it is included in our states adoption of the CCSS for geometry, I decided that I should do a quick basic review of it. I may be cramming it in,  but it will be fun goshdarnit!

This hexter starts with finishing up some real world trig, measuring with clinometers and a fun triangle pile up task as a performance assessment. Then we will collect data & make scatter plots, finding equations of the line of best fit and making predictions,and of course, this interactive note page. I decided not to use calculator regressions because my students need to work on developing fluency writing linear equations anyway. After that we will experiment with mean and median and how they are affected by outliers. We will do Jellyblubbers to help develop understanding of sampling strategies, although if I need more time with other skills, then Jellyblubbers will not happen and I will be sad.

I need to allow enough time to have lotsa fun with probabilities too. I am going to ensure they understand compound probabilities, and’s, or’s, independent & dependent events. I do not have a lot of resources for the probability week, so i’ll either have to create some (and I’ll share!) or you can share your awesomeness in the comments.

After the state testing we will do surface area & volume. I’m excited to introduce surface area with Mr. Stadel’s file cabinet post it task. Then will do some interactive notes on surface area & some practice with various irregular solids. Then on to volume. I am going to go with some of these tasks, combined with notes &  practice.

My plan is not as concrete as it normally is. I am not sure why, but I know I figure it all out. I just can’t think about things that will be happening after spring break. Also, I am in a little bit of a panic over how the heck to teach my programming class.

Here is the learning target tracking sheet: