Statistics Practical Activities

1
StatisticsPractical Activities Census at
School

• NZAMT
• 2009
• Viv Thompson
• Numeracy Facilitator OUCOE

2
Problems of Statistics Teaching

• Often taught in Inquiry or Theme / Topic time
  in Primary School setting
• Limited amount of Statistics learning happening

3
Continued

• Reliance on bar graphs histograms
• Quality of questions?
• Gathering data takes over the task
• Displaying the data in limited ways
• Often no comparison of data, only looking at one
  variable

4
Students need to undertake statistical
investigations

• 2 types
• Question driven cycle
• Data driven cycle

5
Question driven cycle(Has been most common type
of investigation)

• Formulate a question
• Gather data
• Present data
• Discuss trends
• From the investigation more questions, cycle
  recommences

6
Data driven cycle

• Use existing data with many variables
• Students display 2 variables at a time on a
  variety of graphs
• Formulate own question
• Answer question
• Recommence cycle by investigating other
  relationships in the data

7
Statistical Skills

• Formulating questions
• Designing questionnaires
• Planning to collect data
• Collecting data
• Displaying data
• Using relevant software to display data
  meaningfully
• Using means and medians (when this assists in
  answering questions)

8
Practical Ideas

• To move children away from just using bar graphs
  (physical example)
• Dot plot
• Strip graph
• Pie graph
• Stem and leaf graph

9
Census at School

• www.censusatschool.org.nz
• Designed for Year 5 -13 students
• In levels
• Focussing on data analysis not gathering
• Using ICT to display and redisplay data using
  different variables

10
Census at School Website
11
Getting a sample
12
Data Analysis Tools
13
Classroom Activities
14
www.nzmaths.co.nz
15
Figure It Out

• Revised statistics booklets to be in line with
  the NZC
• New Statistics In The Media booklets designed
  with activities relevant to young teens eg
  Texting Olympics