Monday, April 16, 2007

Example #1- Grade 8 Estimation/Data Analysis

Learning Event #1 Village of 1000
Standards:
M-8-DAP-S-DR2: Students will select an appropriate graph to represent data and justify its use.
M-8-DAP-S-CD4: Students will compare sets of data.
MA-8-NPO-S-E2: Students will estimate with large and small quantities of objects.
MA-8-NPO-S-RP1: Students will use percentages and proportions in problem solving

Materials:
A copy of the book If the World Were a Village: A Book About the World’s People. Written by David A. Smith
If the world were a village of 1000 data sheet
Graph-making software/materials
World population data

Learning Cycle:
Pre Activity:
• Admit Slip: “How many and what portion of the world’s population do you think… (is well fed, lives in poverty, is unable to read, will be near death or die this year, speaks Chinese, speaks English, etc.)
• Read Aloud: Excerpts from If the World Were a Village: A Book About the World’s People


Mid Activity:
• Model by taking one area (language) of the statistics from the sheet, turning them into fractions, decimals, percents; create a graph to represent the data
• Have students choose a family of statistics to represent using appropriate graphing model
• Think/Ink/Pair/Share: “What characteristics caused you to choose the style of graph you chose to represent the data?”

Post Activity:
• Exit Slip: “Which statistic from today’s research surprised you the most? And why?”
• Exit Slip: “If 89,801,576 people in the United States are over 80 and the population of the United States is 301,626,524, how many people in a ‘US village of 100’ would be over 80?’

Assessment:
• Students will research more statistics and represent the data using two different graphing styles
• Students will research/use data from the state, city, district or school and represent in the setting of a village in our classroom.

Extensions:

• Students illustrate one of the statistics from the book
• Create a bulletin board posting student graphs to be revisited to discuss the different representations of the data
• Students research more statistics and present the data in the form of a quiz with extension information (example: A World Food Production Quiz)

Resources:
Create a Graph Tool
• Village Data:
Village of 1000- 2000 Census
Village of 1000- 2005 Census
State of Village Report
Village of 1000
• Population Data:
Census Bureau
Census Bureau- quickfacts
Free Demographics [dot] Com
• Lesson Resources:
Sustainability.Org
Village of 1000

2 comments:

Darren Kuropatwa said...

Have you seen swivel.com? I think there are a host of ways to use this site to address the curricular outcomes you listed at the start of this lesson.

Often, when teaching statistics, teachers want to work with data but lose precious time the the gathering of that data. While data gathering is an important part of the statistical process, representing and analyzing the data is by far more interesting and harder for kids to learn. Particularly when we want them to be able to identify when and how a data set has been misrepresented.

Swivel opens a new door on the teaching of statistics.

I haven't fully explored the site yet myself but it's on my long list of "things to do when I find some time." ;-)

Let me know if it's of any use to you.

Cheers,
Darren

rlodan01 said...

Darren,
Very interesting site. I think the premade graphs are a great way for students to quickly be able to notice patterns, but the creation of other graphs was not as intuitive as I would have liked. I did create a profile and will investigate more. Thanks for the heads up.

Roland