The purpose of this activity is for students to make predictions about future weight and height of a baby based on statistical data.
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.
If a baby has a weight of 4.5 kilograms and a length of 57 centimetres at six weeks old, what is their expected weight and height at age 5 years?
What is the predicted height of the baby when he or she is an adult?
You will need access to growth charts such as those at:
https://www.tewhatuora.govt.nz/for-the-health-sector/specific-life-stage-health-information/child-health/well-child-tamariki-programme/growth-charts
The following prompts illustrate how this activity can be structured around the phases of the Statistical Enquiry Cycle.
The problem section is about what data to collect and who to collect it from and why it’s important.
The planning section is about how students will gather the data.
The data section is concerned with how the data is managed and organised.
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 uses a deterministic approach to predict the height and weight of the baby.
At a procedural level, students need to interpret the data presented in the growth charts. This is evidenced by correctly marking position of the given weight and length on the charts. The horizontal scale varies between charts, on the weight chart the axis is marked in weeks and months. On the length chart the axis is labelled in months and years. Students should also make some statement about the meaning of percentiles.
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Predictions for weight and height by these students are unlikely to acknowledge any variation from the percentiles at 6 weeks of age.
The student acknowledges potential sources of variation in making predictions for the weight and height of the baby.
Students who understand that extrapolation from given data is prone to variability are likely to identify sources of variation. The first of those sources is gender.
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Students might also read about projections of weight and height. The baby growth rates are based on breast fed babies and subsequent good nutrition. Students may note that the accuracy of prediction depends on the baby being well-fed, not falling ill, and not have a genetic or hormone related condition. Students might also look up other ways to predict babies’ heights which also acknowledge variation.
Printed from https://nzmaths.co.nz/resource/baby-business at 11:14pm on the 29th March 2024