Module 3

Lost Teeth Video 

I think that the teacher asked the students about the range in order to get them to think critically about the different populations that they gathered their data from. Would it make sense for younger grades to have a wide range of tooth loss? Why or why not? etc. I think that the students showed pretty good insight in regards to the range. One of the students mentioned that he lost teeth before he even entered kindergarten. He was able to draw upon his own experienced to explain the variation in ranges.

I think that the students did a great job analyzing the data. They investigated how their predictions differed from their actual results and discussed the differences. I was impressed by their discussion about how the range is constantly subject to change. This was clear when one girl lost an additional tooth during the project, changing the range for that population.  

Annenberg

I thought this module was very informative because these are skills that I have not used in a very long time.

Problem A5  

Since the goal is to estimate when a minute has elapsed, it makes sense to consider how close the estimates are to the correct response, which is 60 seconds.

a.	How many people's estimates were more than five seconds away from one minute? That is, how many of the responses were less than 55 seconds or greater than 65 seconds?
b.	How many estimates were within five seconds of one minute?
c.	How many estimates were more than 10 seconds away from one minute?
d.	How many estimates were within 10 seconds of one minute?

This question tripped me up, at first. I had to reread section A a few times before it clicked. I decided to include this in the blog because, to me, it was a reminder of how important the phrasing of the question is for students' understanding.

Problem B2    Using only the histogram and grouped frequency table, give two descriptive statements that provide an answer to this question.

I included this question because of a little sense of hesitation that I had. I instantly made the observation of the range, and that most of the data was within 10 seconds of 1 minute. However, I felt unsure whether these were sufficiently descriptive enough. When I read the solution to this problem, it was clear that my observations were valid descriptions. I think this uncertainty would also be shared by students who are new to interpreting data and graphs.

Stem-and-Leaf Plots Article

My take away from this week's articles is similar to the article we read last week. I was very impressed at how quickly the students seemed to pick up the concept of the stem and leaf plots. I think the concept of using the stem and leaf plots as a tool to teach 10's and 1's place value is a really great idea! I can definitely see myself incorporating this approach in my own classroom.

Questions

What kinds of graphs can be used for data that can be put into categories?

Bar graphs are a great way to present categorized data. Pie charts also come to mind. 

What is the difference between a bar graph and a histogram?

A bar graph gives you an exact value for the data while a histogram give you an approximate range.