Exploring data is extremely important and should be a main stay of education from the very beginning of a students education. Data available to us is exploding each year these days with technology, but in some ways I am finding students about to think about the information is limited. The students I work with often have difficulty knowing if the data is reliable, if it is comparable to other information, and if the data is usable for what they want to understand. In K-2 students might want to survey games they could play at recess and might only survey a few friends. If so they might find they did not make a good survey or have good data. Students in K-2 should explore data they have in their real life around them...tangible to them. What is the most popular video game, food at lunch, best party favor for a birthday party and so on. For grades 3-5 it is an excellent opportunity for students to better understand their community...the world around them. The data should be represented visually in graphs or charts. While in 6-8th the students should start to more deeply explore comparing the data with mean, mode, median; evaluating the sources of information, and evaluating the data in the form of fraction, decimal and percentage. Students are able to access, illustrate, and compare the data more easily now more than ever using technology. Finding the appropriate technology programs is vital. In 6-8th grades understanding technology to table, graph and represent the information is important. Students are also able to determine if the representation is accurate or changed as organizations do often to influence the way we think about the information. The interpretation of data is critical as it expands and I think of this often as I think about students memorizing information such as multiplication tables when they are able to access the information so quickly now but many do not understand what the answer or data means for them!
Students at the K-2 level might explore a topic like the seasons, and find data on the temperature and weather for each day of the week. They could compile their data and use it with what they learn about the seasons to decide what season it is. They could make weather charts with pictures of the weather, or bar graphs. In 3-5th grade, students could conduct polls. Perhaps they could run a poll of all 3-5th graders to decide what to do with fundraising money these classes have raised. They could ask everyone in their classes about it, and use the data to decide among the top responses for what they should do with the money, such as donating the money to Heifer International, a class-wide party or dance, new playground equipment like balls or jump ropes, etc. I feel like in these grades, there is a huge interest in opinions and talking with friends, so this might be a fun way for these kiddos to collect data. They could make charts with it as well, and figure out how many people want what, and write up a plan of action to spend the money. In 6-8th grade, I am working on a unit plan on slavery and racism in one of my other classes where I have my students go out into the community to gather ethnographic data. The data will be collected and assessed, and then put onto graphs and pie charts. Students could work on percentages and ratios in these upper grades (as well as handle this particular topic). I also just wanted to get them out into the community and have them tackle a community problem. Does anyone have any suggestions for my unit plan idea, or know any good resources I can use to create a math lesson on ratios or percentages for 6th graders?
I like the idea of having the younger students find data on the weather. Possibly with the second graders you could begin the discussion of what happens when we gather data that seems out of place (a very high temperature for March) and how do we interpret that data? I also really like that you are doing your own unit that involves getting the students out in their community and they are practicing collecting data! I think it is a great way to incorporate their personal lives and school.
For K-2, the collection of data can start with manipulatives used in class. I remember my son counting the shells they used for art in his Kindergarten class. They would then group them based on student-defined characteristics. I like the bird feeder idea suggesting in the book as well - a possible/good connection to science. In these younger grades, sticking with categorical data would be best. Although, my son's class (again, sorry) also tracked the temperature at their outdoor classroom. I don't think they did anything with it, or even compiled it in one place, but just the act of collection might have made them think, "I wonder how cold it is in Burlington, or at my house, or at Grandma's house." "How many days have been below/above zero?" I also like the idea of exploring with this age the size of the sample set. For example, would the height of 2 students be representative of the whole class. How about 3, or 4 or 5? Letting them struggle a bit, and maybe come to the realization that the whole class could be sampled, given its size. Or that maybe half is enough. I guess I saying young students could begin to play around with the more complex concepts, even if they don't apply them.
In grades 3-5 students can investigate both categorical and numerical data. At this age they would begin to understand the idea of representative sample. Their classmates could be used as a representative sample of the entire school, or the school population compared to the community. I know this year was a great year for looking at polling data connected to the presidential election. Keying in on those cultural events and issues help connect students to the world around them.
Finally, in 6-8 students should really be able to dig into collecting data, making sense of the data, and drawing conclusions. As a science and math teacher, there's an easy connection between experiments and data - a connection explicitly made in the standards. The data sets could be quite extensive, and the massaging of that data complex.
When it comes to collecting data, I think it is crucial to answer questions that are relevant to the students' life experience. For student in the K-2 level, I think having them collect data on their families, pets, personal characteristics (like eye or hair color), and interests is a good place to start. With this information, students can explore them by asking other classes, different age students, or students that live elsewhere. Once they are in grades 3-5 then I think the data can be more in depth or easily related to other subjects, for instance science classes. Students could collect data on animal sighting, plants, or different aspects of the weather (like sunny versus cloudy days). I think that students grade 6-8 would be very interested in collecting data that has to do more with pop culture. For instance comparing their favorite movies to websites like "Rotten Tomatoes" or their favorite songs to the songs that win Grammies.
Exploring data is extremely important and should be a main stay of education from the very beginning of a students education. Data available to us is exploding each year these days with technology, but in some ways I am finding students about to think about the information is limited. The students I work with often have difficulty knowing if the data is reliable, if it is comparable to other information, and if the data is usable for what they want to understand. In K-2 students might want to survey games they could play at recess and might only survey a few friends. If so they might find they did not make a good survey or have good data. Students in K-2 should explore data they have in their real life around them...tangible to them. What is the most popular video game, food at lunch, best party favor for a birthday party and so on. For grades 3-5 it is an excellent opportunity for students to better understand their community...the world around them. The data should be represented visually in graphs or charts. While in 6-8th the students should start to more deeply explore comparing the data with mean, mode, median; evaluating the sources of information, and evaluating the data in the form of fraction, decimal and percentage. Students are able to access, illustrate, and compare the data more easily now more than ever using technology. Finding the appropriate technology programs is vital. In 6-8th grades understanding technology to table, graph and represent the information is important. Students are also able to determine if the representation is accurate or changed as organizations do often to influence the way we think about the information. The interpretation of data is critical as it expands and I think of this often as I think about students memorizing information such as multiplication tables when they are able to access the information so quickly now but many do not understand what the answer or data means for them!
ReplyDeleteStudents at the K-2 level might explore a topic like the seasons, and find data on the temperature and weather for each day of the week. They could compile their data and use it with what they learn about the seasons to decide what season it is. They could make weather charts with pictures of the weather, or bar graphs. In 3-5th grade, students could conduct polls. Perhaps they could run a poll of all 3-5th graders to decide what to do with fundraising money these classes have raised. They could ask everyone in their classes about it, and use the data to decide among the top responses for what they should do with the money, such as donating the money to Heifer International, a class-wide party or dance, new playground equipment like balls or jump ropes, etc. I feel like in these grades, there is a huge interest in opinions and talking with friends, so this might be a fun way for these kiddos to collect data. They could make charts with it as well, and figure out how many people want what, and write up a plan of action to spend the money. In 6-8th grade, I am working on a unit plan on slavery and racism in one of my other classes where I have my students go out into the community to gather ethnographic data. The data will be collected and assessed, and then put onto graphs and pie charts. Students could work on percentages and ratios in these upper grades (as well as handle this particular topic). I also just wanted to get them out into the community and have them tackle a community problem. Does anyone have any suggestions for my unit plan idea, or know any good resources I can use to create a math lesson on ratios or percentages for 6th graders?
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of having the younger students find data on the weather. Possibly with the second graders you could begin the discussion of what happens when we gather data that seems out of place (a very high temperature for March) and how do we interpret that data? I also really like that you are doing your own unit that involves getting the students out in their community and they are practicing collecting data! I think it is a great way to incorporate their personal lives and school.
DeleteFor K-2, the collection of data can start with manipulatives used in class. I remember my son counting the shells they used for art in his Kindergarten class. They would then group them based on student-defined characteristics. I like the bird feeder idea suggesting in the book as well - a possible/good connection to science. In these younger grades, sticking with categorical data would be best. Although, my son's class (again, sorry) also tracked the temperature at their outdoor classroom. I don't think they did anything with it, or even compiled it in one place, but just the act of collection might have made them think, "I wonder how cold it is in Burlington, or at my house, or at Grandma's house." "How many days have been below/above zero?" I also like the idea of exploring with this age the size of the sample set. For example, would the height of 2 students be representative of the whole class. How about 3, or 4 or 5? Letting them struggle a bit, and maybe come to the realization that the whole class could be sampled, given its size. Or that maybe half is enough. I guess I saying young students could begin to play around with the more complex concepts, even if they don't apply them.
ReplyDeleteIn grades 3-5 students can investigate both categorical and numerical data. At this age they would begin to understand the idea of representative sample. Their classmates could be used as a representative sample of the entire school, or the school population compared to the community. I know this year was a great year for looking at polling data connected to the presidential election. Keying in on those cultural events and issues help connect students to the world around them.
Finally, in 6-8 students should really be able to dig into collecting data, making sense of the data, and drawing conclusions. As a science and math teacher, there's an easy connection between experiments and data - a connection explicitly made in the standards. The data sets could be quite extensive, and the massaging of that data complex.
When it comes to collecting data, I think it is crucial to answer questions that are relevant to the students' life experience. For student in the K-2 level, I think having them collect data on their families, pets, personal characteristics (like eye or hair color), and interests is a good place to start. With this information, students can explore them by asking other classes, different age students, or students that live elsewhere. Once they are in grades 3-5 then I think the data can be more in depth or easily related to other subjects, for instance science classes. Students could collect data on animal sighting, plants, or different aspects of the weather (like sunny versus cloudy days). I think that students grade 6-8 would be very interested in collecting data that has to do more with pop culture. For instance comparing their favorite movies to websites like "Rotten Tomatoes" or their favorite songs to the songs that win Grammies.
ReplyDelete