Collecting, Organizing, and Displaying Data

Objective: The students will be able to display data in dot plots and box-and-whisker plots.

Prerequisite Skills:
-frequency tables
-median, mode, minimum, maximum, range, mean
-converting minutes into seconds

Procedure:
1. Create 4 stations in the classroom:
a) Book Balance - Students take turns holding their arms directly out to the sides with a textbook in each hand. They are timed (using ipods) for the number of seconds they can hold the books until their arms fall.
b) Chip Stack - Students take turns holding a ruler in one hand while placing bingo chips into a single stack at the end of the ruler. They count the number of chips that were successfully stacked before it falls.
c) Sock Toss - Students take turns tossing a rolled up (new) sock into a container on the other side of a table. The number of makes per 60 seconds is recorded (timed with an ipod).
d) Ruler Balance - Students take turns standing on one foot, blindfolded, with a ruler placed on top of their head. They are timed for the number of seconds they can maintain that position before the ruler falls (or their raised foot touches the floor). Each student is recorded as proof of when their foot touched the floor. It also makes for a fun video to watch!

2. The teacher leads the class through the steps of creating dot plots and box-and-whisker plots based on the entire class set of data.

3. Groups share their work to the class using the iPad document camera and the external microphone. Selected videos, photos, and presentations are uploaded to the classroom web site for parents to view.