The purpose of this activity is to engage students in discussion, evaluating the effectiveness of data displays in presenting the findings of a statistical investigation.
This activity assumes the students have experience in the following areas:
The problem is sufficiently open ended to allow the students freedom of choice in their approach. It may be scaffolded with guidance that leads to a solution, and/or the students might be given the opportunity to solve the problem independently.
The example responses at the end of the resource give an indication of the kind of response to expect from students who approach the problem in particular ways.
A year 6 class investigated how people listen to music with the following question:
Which way do you usually listen to music?
They grouped their data and set it out on the table below:
Year 6 | Older siblings | Student Teachers | Teachers | Parents | |
Radio | 2 | 6 | 0 | 7 | 12 |
Streaming | 18 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
Downloaded | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 8 |
CDs | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 9 |
Live | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Mixture | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 10 |
Other | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
When they analysed the data, they came up with the following conclusions:
Discuss the effectiveness of the data table in leading to their conclusions.
The following prompts illustrate how this activity can be structured around the Analysis and Conclusion parts of the Statistical Enquiry Cycle
The analysis section is about exploring the data and reasoning with it.
The conclusion section is about answering the question in the problem section and providing reasons based on their analysis.
The student looks for similarities and differences among age groups. They compare groups using totals and fraction.
Click on the image to enlarge it. Click again to close.
The student evaluates the effectiveness of the table of data in supporting pattern and difference finding among groups. They note limitations and suggest improvements.
Printed from https://nzmaths.co.nz/resource/listening-music at 6:42pm on the 18th July 2024