Session 3 - Interpreting Shape, Center and Spread

Interpreting Shape, Center, and Spread - Grade Band: High School).

Collaborative Activity #2: (10 - 15 minutes)

Directions:

Students will use the Height Activity & Answers and finish the second part of the activity.
Detailed directions are included on the activity worksheet.
Students working in pairs will complete this part and discuss how to find the statistical concepts of minimum, maximum, median, quartile 1, and quartile 3
Then, lead a discussion on what each of those concepts means in the context of the student’s heights.

Focus: MP5: Use appropriate tools strategically and MP6: Attend to precision

Decorative question mark:

Why are students doing this/what are they getting out of it?

Students will do this activity as a think-pair-share to find the 5-point summary (minimum, maximum, median, lower median (Q1), and upper median (Q3). These points (lower and upper median) are used in the next activity.

Progress Monitoring

Directions:

Students can work with partners (or work alone if doing this with one individual) to find the answers to the statistical concepts.
Students found measures of the center from the Center of Action Activity, but the meaning of the data points may be new to them. It is good for them to think about what numbers mean in context.
As students are working on Part 2 of the Height Activity, be sure that they can accurately find the minimum, maximum, median, quartile 1, and quartile 3.
Test Data Activity & Answers (this assignment will be coming up later, but it has many data sets where you can choose one to practice with)
You can keep track of students’ work on a paper tracker. This is a good chart to use: Progress Monitoring Tool #2.

Decorative question mark:

Why are students doing this/what are they getting out of it?

For students to understand spread, they need to understand the interquartile range. The interquartile range is found by subtracting quartile 1 from quartile 3. Therefore, students need to know how to find quartiles before discussing spread.

Please Note

If this activity seems to be taking a long time, this would be a good breaking point for the final assessment to check for understanding.