Funding for the VITAL/Ready to Teach collection was secured through the United States Department of Education under the Ready to Teach Program.
Loading StandardsIn this Cyberchase activity, Bianca uses recorded data to help her decide how many boxes of shoes she should order. Using the same data set, students are introduced to the concepts of range, mode, median, and mean and the advantages and disadvantages of each in describing central tendency.
1 hour
Restocking Shoes QuickTime Video
Describing Data Sets handout
Assessment: Level A
Assessment: Level B
Answer Key
1. Read the following to your students: "Bianca is working in a shoe store and is asked to stock a new line of shoes. She studies the data of previous sales and bases her new order on this data. In the video segment, watch how Bianca figures out what quantity of shoes to order."
2. Play the Restocking Shoes QuickTime Video .
3. Discuss how Bianca determined how many shoes to order. Ask students if they would have gone about it in the same way. Ask them what they would have done differently.
4. Distribute the Describing Data Sets handout .
5. Ask the students to complete the handout.
6. Discuss the handout. Pay particular attention to students' understanding of the definition of range, as well as the distinctions among mean, median and mode. Discuss the different kinds of situations in which it would be most useful to know the median, mean or mode.
Assessment: Level A (proficiency): Students practice calculating mean, median and mode for a small set of data collected in tables and bar graphs.
Assessment: Level B (above proficiency): Students calculate mean, median and mode for a large data set represented in a bar graph.
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