Chapter 8
Part 1: For the problem in the Teacher's Edition, page 190
Students can do this activity and collect the data. Or you can provide them with the Data Sheet that shows the data from a group of kids playing “foul-shooting” found on the Activity page (PDF file).
Suggest that students set up a chart such as the following to keep track of the results. They can keep a tally in the Number of Baskets column and then find a total for each player at the end of the game.
| Name of Player | Number of Baskets |
Answers for the Data Sheet
The average number of successful shots was 16.
Answers will vary when students play the game themselves and record the results.
Part 2: Be an Investigator
A good time to do this investigation is after Lesson 5 on drawing conclusions and making predictions.
Introducing the Investigation
Introduce the investigation by reading aloud the assignment at the top of the first page of the Description of Investigation and Student Report (PDF file), by having one of your students read aloud the assignment, or by having the students read the assignment individually.
Put students in groups of two to four to work on the investigation.
Doing the Investigation
If students are having trouble deciding how to describe the results for each group, suggest that they look at Lesson 5.
Discuss the results with your students. For Class A, mean, median, and mode are all 34, so all three are appropriate to use to describe the data. For Class B, the two low scores of 15 and 18 “pull” the mean away from the rest of the data. In this case the mode and the median, which are both 34, give a better picture of the data.
Answers for the Data Sheet
Student Report
The student report gives students an opportunity to show what they have done and to tell how they would describe the results of each group.
Extending the Investigation
Have your class do the activity where each student sees how many times he or she can write his or her name in one minute. Collect the results and discuss with the students the best way to describe the data for your class.