Levels of Measurement Card Sort Activity

Practice classifying variables according to the 4 levels of measurement with this free and fun statistics card sort activity.

What is a Card Sort Activity?

A card sort activity is a classic type of formative assessment used by teachers. Students are provided with a set of statements (or expressions, equations, etc.) written on individual cards. These could be handwritten on index cards or small slips of paper. Or, they could be typed statements that have been printed and cut apart.

Students must sort the cards based on a given set of criteria. This is an excellent way to get an understanding of a students’ grasp of a certain concept.

I usually print my card sort activities on colored paper and laminate them for durability since I reuse them from year to year. You might want to have students cut apart the statements themselves and glue them in their notes or on a piece of paper to submit for a grade.

Levels of Measurement Card Sort Instructions

Cut apart the provided cards. Sort each variable according to its level of measurement. That is, classify each variable as nominal, ordinal, interval, or ratio.

Using this Activity in Class

I used this card sort activity with my non-AP statistics class.

We did this activity directly after completing two of the Levels of Measurement Dry Erase activities that I created. I put the Movies and Olympics problem sets in a dry erase pocket for students to use to practice their levels of measurement.

My students completed the dry erase activity individually, but they completed this card sort activity in their table groups. In retrospect, I would probably allow students to have no more than 3 in their groups.

The group above had a few misunderstandings that came out when I checked their sorting.

Ski slope difficulty was a big issue with almost all the groups because it turned out that my students had very little knowledge of how ski slopes are rated. I guess that’s what we get for living in Oklahoma.

You might also have to explain to students how golf scoring works…

Answer Key

Coming soon!