Statistics Teacher

Supporting the Teaching and Learning of Statistics

6-8

Where’s Wenda? An Activity on Teaching Middle-School Students Data Privacy

By Claire M. Bowen and Evercita C. Eugenio When middle school students hear the word science, many imagine looking at bacteria under a microscope or mixing chemicals over a Bunsen burner, not writing mathematical equations or typing code on a computer. At the University of Notre Dame, 230–280 middle-school girls (6th through 8th grade) attend Expanding Your Horizons (EYH), … [Read more...] about Where’s Wenda? An Activity on Teaching Middle-School Students Data Privacy

Sharing a Birthday: Technology-Supported Investigations in Middle School

By Dusty Jones My daughters Rosalie and Lucy share a birthday, but they are not twins. Rosalie is two years older than Lucy. Most people find this surprising, but my uncle Bruce and his son Jesse also share a birthday. Actually, according to Facebook, I have a few friends who share my birthday. Although it is clearly possible for two people to share a birthday, our … [Read more...] about Sharing a Birthday: Technology-Supported Investigations in Middle School

Lesson Plan: EllipSeeIt—Visualizing Strength and Direction of Correlation

By Miguel Olvera and Rafael Diaz (Grades 6–12+) Originally published in February 2017, this lesson focuses on correlation as a way of measuring the strength and direction of a linear association between two numerical variables. After reviewing concepts of bivariate data sets, their graphical representations through scatterplots, and the meaning of a linear association, … [Read more...] about Lesson Plan: EllipSeeIt—Visualizing Strength and Direction of Correlation

Lesson Plan: What Fits?

By Anna Bargagliotti and Stephanie Casey (Grades 6-12+) Originally published in February 2013, this activity has students explore what a line of best fit is and where a line of best fit should be placed on a scatterplot of data with a linear association. This is done through students’ completion of an activity investigating the relationship between the drop height of a golf … [Read more...] about Lesson Plan: What Fits?

Lesson Plan: Bubble Trouble!

By Peter Banwarth (Grades 6-12+) Originally published in May 2014, this lesson has the following two goals: In this lesson, students will determine if the size of a bubble blown in water is affected by different additions to the water. Students will design an activity to explore this and have fun blowing bubbles. They will use numeric summaries—including the mean and … [Read more...] about Lesson Plan: Bubble Trouble!

Lesson Plan: The Gumball Machine

By Alexander White, M. Alejandra Sorto, and Rini Oktavia (Grades K–12+) Originally published in April 2014, this lesson gives students the opportunity to explore and discuss the variation that occurs in sampling. Students are asked to imagine a gumball machine contains 1 red, 2 green, 3 yellow, and 4 blue gumballs that were thoroughly mixed before they were put into the … [Read more...] about Lesson Plan: The Gumball Machine