Mean Median Mode & Range Challenge Activity

I created this mean, median, mode, and range challenge activity back when I was teaching Algebra 1. The activity is an adaptation of a set of questions created by the late Don Steward.

Students are placed in small groups which must work through as many of the different challenges as possible.

Each time a group successfully completes one of the challenges, I mark the challenge complete on their challenge tracking card by punching a whole in their half-sheet of paper.

I have also used stamps in the past to mark off which challenges students have completed.

When I do activities like this, I always create a tracking sheet for my students. I do this for several reasons. Most importantly, it tells students which challenges they have and haven’t completed.

Often, my students work the challenges out of order. If they don’t keep track of which ones they have and haven’t done, they end up wasting a lot of time looking for a challenge they haven’t completed.

It also gives me something to have students turn in for credit. I usually set a base number of challenges that I expect students to complete during the class period to receive full credit for the activity.

My students really enjoyed using our dry erase boards and markers to help them work through these different mean, median, mode, and range challenges.

They would write down a set of numbers that they thought met the requirements of the challenge. Then, they would calculate the mean, median, mode, and range of the set they created to check their work.

Usually, this would allow them to spot their mistakes before they came up to my desk to ask me to check their work on a specific challenge.

I loved this activity because it gave my students sooooo much practice finding mean, median, mode, and range. Some groups had to try three or four different data sets before they found the correct combination of numbers.

We did this activity after completing the mean, median, mode, and range graphic organizers that I created for our interactive notebooks.