Description
What our Statistical Observation and Graphs lesson plan includes
Lesson Objectives and Overview: Statistical Observation and Graphs teaches students the basics of working with data. At the end of this lesson, students will be able to report the number of observations in a data set or graph. They will also know the essential elements in reading various types of charts. This lesson is for students in 6th grade.
Classroom Procedure
Every lesson plan provides you with a classroom procedure page that outlines a step-by-step guide to follow. You do not have to follow the guide exactly. The guide helps you organize the lesson and details when to hand out worksheets. It also lists information in the blue box that you might find useful. You will find the lesson objectives, state standards, and number of class sessions the lesson should take to complete in this area. In addition, it describes the supplies you will need as well as what and how you need to prepare beforehand.
Options for Lesson
Included with this lesson is an “Options for Lesson” section that lists a number of suggestions for activities to add to the lesson or substitutions for the ones already in the lesson. One optional addition to this lesson is to have your students create graphs with limitations on the number of observations within the class. You can also have them create a tally chart with at least 10 observations and a bar chart with 15 or more. Finally, try using graphical displays from the local news to help your students determine the total number of observations.
Teacher Notes
The teacher notes page includes a paragraph with additional guidelines and things to think about as you begin to plan your lesson. This page also includes lines that you can use to add your own notes as you’re preparing for this lesson.
STATISTICAL OBSERVATION AND GRAPHS LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES
Probability
The Statistical Observation and Graphs lesson plan includes two content pages. Observations are single units described by the data to collect or analyze. Each data point represents a single answer to a statistical question. For example, if the question is how many people wore tennis shoes to school on Friday, each person’s shoes are one observation.
When working with statistics, one of the first things you need to figure out is probability. How many observations do you have that answer the question? In order to calculate specific statistics and probabilities such as the mean (average) of the data, you need to know the total number of observations. Graphical representations of data can be used to determine the total number of observations.
Interpreting Graphs and Total Observations
Let’s take a look at an example data set titled Grades on a Science Test in Mr. Fullerton’s Class. The data set includes the numbers 76, 85, 91, 90, 77, 82, and 88. Given this data set, how many people took the science test? Since each number represents one grade from one person, and seven grades are listed, seven people took the science test.
Next, the lesson shows a dot plot titled Number of Goals Scored. How many games did Sarah’s soccer team play this year? On the dot plot, each dot represents the number of goals scored in a game. The total number of dots equals the number of observations in a dot plot. There are 20 dots, so Sarah’s soccer team played a total of 20 games.
Next, the lesson shows a histogram or bar chart titled Favorite Type of Movie. How can you figure out how many people were surveyed to create the graph? The bar graph shows the number of people on the left side. Using this, you can tell that 4 people like comedy, 5 like action, 6 like romance, 1 likes drama, and 4 like sci-if. Simply add up all these people to find the total number of observations: 4 + 5 + 6 + 1 + 4 = 20 people.
Finally, the lesson shows a tally titled Favorite Part of Christmas, with tallies next to each part. How many people answered the survey? Since each tally mark represents one observation, simply count the total number of tally marks. When you do so, you discover that there are a total of 35 observations.
These graphs contain a specific number of observations, represented by dots, bars, tallies, or numbers. When you add up the total number of observations, you discover how many people or objects answered the statistical question.
STATISTICAL OBSERVATION AND GRAPHS LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS
The Statistical Observation and Graphs lesson plan includes three worksheets: an activity worksheet, a practice worksheet, and a homework assignment. You can refer to the guide on the classroom procedure page to determine when to hand out each worksheet.
COMPLETING OBSERVATIONS ACTIVITY WORKSHEET
For the activity worksheet, students will complete the observations on each type of graph or chart shown on the worksheet.
TOTAL OBSERVATIONS PRACTICE WORKSHEET
The practice worksheet asks students to find the total number of observations in each graph.
STATISTICAL OBSERVATION AND GRAPHS HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT
For the homework assignment, students will find five graphs online and determine the total number of observations. They will then print each chart and attach or glue them to the worksheet with the answers circled next to them.
Worksheet Answer Keys
This lesson plan includes answer keys for the practice worksheet and the homework assignment. If you choose to administer the lesson pages to your students via PDF, you will need to save a new file that omits these pages. Otherwise, you can simply print out the applicable pages and keep these as reference for yourself when grading assignments.
