The activity I’m about to share isn’t super fancy or complex, but my students absolutely loved it. I had planned two activities for our 50 minute class period in Algebra 1 on reviewing measures of central tendency: this activity and another. We did this activity first, and my students did not want to move on …
Statistics
While looking through Don Steward’s blog for data collection ideas, I ran across the idea of a “blind stork test.” The idea is simple. Close your eyes and see how long you can stand on one leg. Don Steward claims that most people can’t last more than one minute. As with my Estimating 30 Seconds …
One of my favorite activities from the Steve Spangler workshop I attended was an inertia challenge involving a 1- or 2-liter bottle, a plastic ring, and a hex nut. Steve Spangler also sells a kit with all of the supplies for this activity. I attended his workshop in the hopes of finding ideas for …
This hula hoop scatterplot activity gets students moving in math class while learning about how to create a scatterplot and use that scatterplot and linear regression to make predictions. Five or so years ago before I ever started teaching, I purchased a hula hoop at a yard sale. I paid a whopping 10 cents for …
I created this mystery box probability activity to give my Algebra 1 students some hands-on experience with probability. When I dreamed up this probability activity, I envisioned myself using a box. Therefore, I typed up the notes as “Mystery Box Probability.” Then, my husband ended up borrowing the box I planned to use for an …
I love using the Blocko game to give students much needed practice with experimental and theoretical probability. This game also goes by the name “Beano.” I prefer to play it with linking cubes, so we call it Blocko. Algebra 1 is in the midst of our LAST unit of the year. With the stress and …
Today’s lesson is brought to you with special thanks to the OKC Thunder. I chose to use data for the OKC Thunder because they are Oklahoma’s only professional sports team. Oklahoma is just a little bit obsessed with them! UPDATE: I did this activity during the 2016-2017 school year, so my data is from …
State testing has thrown my teaching off so much lately. I usually try to keep all of my Algebra 1 classes in the same place, but that just hasn’t been possible these past few weeks. Algebra 1 is currently working with scatter plots and regression. My 6th hour class finished super-early compared to my other …
My Algebra 1 students are in the midst of our next-to-last unit of the year: data analysis. This is my first year of teaching Algebra 1 where my students do not have to take an end-of-instruction exam in Algebra 1. This means that I don’t have to rush through concepts in order to have enough …
I used this estimating 30 seconds data collection activity with my Algebra 1 students, and it turned out to be a ton of fun. How well can you estimate 30 seconds? This is the question I posed to my Algebra 1 students a couple of weeks ago as part of our unit on data analysis. …
Check out this Always Sometimes Never Activity for Mean, Median, Mode, & Range. This was the perfect way to review the measures of central tendency with my Algebra 1 students. I used this activity as a last-minute review before our quiz over finding measures of central tendency. I gave students this set of 11 …
This Tenzi vs Splitzi data collection activity was the perfect set-up for practicing finding measures of central tendency with my Algebra 1 students. I love a good dice game. I’ve blogged before about playing Farkle with my students. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten around to blogging about it, but my husband and I love …
I created these measures of central tendency graphic organizers for my Algebra 1 students to review how to find mean, median, mode, and range at the beginning of our data analysis unit. If you’ve been paying attention, you might have caught a sneak peek of these notes over finding mean, median, mode, and range in …
Recently, I’ve been trying to find a way to organize many of the amazing resources I’ve found online so I can use them more easily in the future. Don Steward’s blog is an absolute treasure trove of activities and interesting problems for any mathematics classroom. A few weeks ago, I went through every single …
Looking to play a friendly game of Farkle with friends or with your students in your classroom? I’ve got a free printable Farkle Score Sheet to help make your game play run smoothly. What is Farkle? Farkle is an incredibly fun and addictive dice game that is equally suitable for a fun family game night …
Have you ever wondered what an entire interactive notebook looks like? Today I want to share with you one of my student’s notebooks from last year’s statistics class. I didn’t do the best job of blogging all my notebook pages last year. I blame it on the craziness of getting married last school year! Many …
Before Spring Break, I gave my statistics students the assignment to design their own survey projects. We spent well over a week on this project, but I definitely think it was time well spent. First, I gave my students this planning document to help them plan their survey projects. After students did this rough …
Earlier this week, I had the privilege of having Kara Tobey observe my classroom. She’s a first-year math teacher in Little Rock, AR, and she’s got an awesome blog that you should definitely check out: Algeotrigcal. I especially love the questions tab she has on her blog where she writes about questions she is pondering …
I created this types of data displays foldable for my Algebra 1 students to review bar graphs, stem-and-leaf graphs, box-and-whisker plots, and circle graphs. My Algebra 1 classes recently started their last unit of the year: Data Analysis and Probability. They will take their end-of-instruction exam on April 11th, so the rush is on to …
I created this let’s make a graph activity to give my Algebra 1 students practice making various types of data displays. We needed to practice making bar graphs, box-and-whisker-plots, circle graphs, and stem-and-leaf graphs. We completed this activity after going over our Types of Data Displays Foldable. I made these half-sheet forms for students to …
This year, I decided I wanted to start my statistics class off with a statistical simulation to give them a taste of what was in store for the year. I ran across mention of a hiring discrimination simulation on another blog, and I thought it would make the perfect first activity. The activity is …
I want to share a statistics foldable I made for the Game of Greed. I’ve been looking for fun ways to collect quantitative data in my statistics class. Let’s just say my students are tired of surveys of how many siblings they have or how many states they’ve visited. I got this Game of Greed …
My statistics students are moving into z-scores. Z-scores are the sort of thing that sound terrifying, but they aren’t really that bad if you understand what the number actually means. While trying to figure out how to introduce the topic, I asked my fiance for advice. Shaun suggested that I have students find z-scores …
I made this Graphs in the News Statistics Foldable to give my stat students practice analyzing graphs of categorical data. I pulled some real-life data displays from the internet. Then, I had students discuss these questions together as a group. I loved hearing my students reason through these! I took the question prompts …
My stats students were struggling with boxplots. So, I decided to take a break from making boxplots to letting them look at boxplots that were already made. A quick google search led me to a card sort linked to by @druinok. The link is now broken, so I have uploaded the file below. I always feel …