Big Ideas:
Data displays describe and represent data in alternative ways.
Data in different displays can be compared if we can form a relationship between the representations.
Categorical data does not lose meaning if presented in a different order.
This lesson builds on the students' work with organizing and interpreting data. This task uses the scenario of a principal desiring to purchase a new piece of recess equipment. Two boys, Will and Troy, collect survey data and begin to create different representations of the same data. Students are asked to think about the similarities and differences between the displays. Students will use the data they can see in each incomplete graph to form relationships that will allow them to finish both. They will discover that common conventions make it easier to solve for missing information. The mathematical concepts in this lesson build toward students' future work with drawing and solving word problems with scaled picture and bar graphs.
Vocabulary: representation, data, category, title, picture graph, bar graph, vertical, horizontal, axes, axis, total, count (referring to a total of a group), compare
Special Materials:
Compare Graph Worksheet
Optional:
counters such as snap cubes to support direct modeling
Lesson plan