The purpose of today's class is for students to get some practice constructing box plots and to spend some time working on comparing two sets of data. My students, many of whom struggle with math and have missed chunks of school in the past, usually need some time to either learn or remember how to make box plots. I try to use today's lesson as an opportunity for them to get some practice, but also to move forward with the Common Core standards as they compare the spread and distribution of two sets of data.
I begin class by asking students what they think the price of the average speeding ticket is nation wide. I let students share out their predictions and then share with them some statistics I have found about speeding tickets. I show them some Driving Citation Statistics from Statistic Brain and we briefly discuss some of the other information presented.
Next, I let students know that today we are going to look at two data sets that compare the speeds of cars on the northbound and southbound sides of a highway. We will be looking at the data in box plots to categorize and compare it.
Next, we read through the 1, 2, 3 Speed Trap task together. For this task, I ask students to work alone or in small groups to create their box plots. This is the first time in my class students will be comparing two box plots, so I may cue them to put them on the same number line (or keep a close eye on their initial plotting efforts).
Issues I watch for while students work:
Once students have constructed their box plots and written down some comparisons, we'll do a whole class share out. I'll try to elicit from students the main similarities and differences about the data sets. The main points I want to highlight are:
Because box plots may be new to my students, I also want to touch on some of the basics about the range, quartiles, IQR, etc.
I finish today's class with a 3-2-1 Reflection about Box Plots. I ask students to write down:
Driving Citations Statistics – Statistic Brain.”
2013 Statistic Brain Research Institute, publishing as Statistic Brain.
7/8/2014
Source: http://www.statisticbrain.com/driving-citation-statistics/
S-ID 1, 2, 3, Speed Trap is licensed by Illustrative Mathematics under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
Source: http://www.illustrativemathematics.org/standards/hs