Week 10 Reflection- Data Management and Probability

This week’s class focused on Data and Probability. In this strand students learn about different ways to gather, organize, and display data. Different types of data are learned and techniques are developed to analyze the data, which include determining measures of central tendency and examining the distribution of the data. Within probability students explore probability by conducting probability experiments and using probability models to simulate situations. Connecting probability and data management to real-world problems helps make the learning relevant to students.

This week I was one of the activity leaders and focused on data collection and displaying data. To start off the activity I reviewed with the group what a number line and stem and leaf plot were since these were the two methods in which we would be displaying and organizing our data. This activity focused on the collection of data so I got the students to record their jump measurements that they made. From here we organized the data from least to greatest so we could arrange it more easily on our number line. As a group we determined at what intervals the number line should go up based on our data numbers. It was determined that we should go up by tens for it is a friendly number and one that worked well with our data. Once we saw the data displayed on the number line we then arranged the data on a stem and plot graph, which allowed us to view the data quickly. From here we were able to determine which two students recorded the farthest jumping distances.

Stem and Leaf Plots. (2017). [Online Image]. Retrieved November 17, 2017, from http://www.mathsisfun.com/data/stem-leaf-plots.html

The big ideas or main concepts in Data Management and Probability are:

-collection and organization of data

-data relationships

-probability

We looked at teaching the strand through problem solving and conducted a few of the activities in class. One of the activities we had to organize our data in groupings of 10-19, 20-29 and so forth up to 50-59. Once we organized our data we displayed it in a histogram form. The class compared this grouping and groupings of 4 to one another and talked about the different representations. It was said that both portrayals were beneficial, it just depended on what information one wanted to get out of the representation that would determine which one was better. The smaller grouping allowed more specific information and detail to be taken away from the graph while the larger grouping allowed for a general idea at a quick glance.

Fallavollita, E. (November 17, 2017). Data Histogram. [Image]. 

Until next week, happy mathing!