Tenzi is one of my favorite games to use in the math classroom for data collection activities. I love Tenzi because the rules are super easy and fast to explain to students, and the sheer variety of ways to play keeps students (and me as the teacher) from getting bored! A few years ago when …
Quantitative Data
After creating our own individual magnets, my statistics class used them to complete this dot plot of the day activity. For an entire week, we created a dot plot at the beginning of each class period. Then students practiced writing a short paragraph to describe the data’s distribution. I only see my students four days …
We are currently learning to create and describe dot plots in my statistics classes. To help increase student buy-in, I decided to have my students design their own “dot” for our dot plots. I’m calling these “design your own dot plot magnets.” I created a simple template with circles for students to create their own …
How many states have you visited? We’re getting into one my favorite part of teaching statistics – data collection! I created this free printable to help my statistics students figure out how many states they have visited since students don’t typically know that fact off the top of their heads. I know that I can’t …
I’m super excited today to share a dotplot matching activity I recently created for my statistics class. This summer when I realized I was actually going to get to teach statistics again after a multi-year hiatus, I got super excited and started doing lots of research. One of the books that came across my path …
When I ran across this count the objects task last fall, I thought it would make a great classroom activity for anyone needing to collect one variable data to analyze. The task is from Stephen Barr’s Mathematical Brain Benders: 2nd Miscellany of Puzzles. I see so much potential for using this activity in a statistics class. You …
Well, it turns out that I still have posts in my drafts folder from last year. I guess I should do something about that. The Skill: Comparing Data Sets The Topic: Ages of Academy Award Winners The Introduction: Ask students what they expect to happen. This was a difficult task for my students. It turns …
I want to share a set of TULSA Graphing Posters here on the blog today. Today was definitely not my day. Our first professional day is tomorrow, so I decided it would be wise to go into school early today to try and get used to the fact that summer is over. After a bit …
Today’s blog post was inspired by Cheryl Leung and Where’s Waldo? I loved this idea, but I had a problem. My Where’s Waldo? books from my childhood are long gone. I considered ordering a few from Amazon, but I needed them sooner rather than later for class. Now, it’s time for a fun fact. Did …
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 …
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 …
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. …
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 …
One of my favorite graphs to use to practice SOCS in statistics is this Kentucky Derby Winning Times graph that I found in Stats: Modeling the World. To practice describing SOCS, I had my class look at this dotplot of the Kentucky Derby Winning Times between 1875 and 2008. We had quite the interesting discussion …