Grade 8 – Mathematics: Data Analysis and Collection/Display Issues

Overview

Students select, defend, and use appropriate methods of electronically collecting and displaying data.

Activate

Using a graphic organizer, groups brainstorms different methods of data collection such as written and oral surveys, experiments, and data collected through electronic media. [Plan and Question] Students list issues to be considered with each method including: appropriate language, ethics, cost, privacy, cultural sensitivity, unbiased experiments, etc.

Teacher Tip:
Examples of issues when formulating questions such as for a survey on families’ incomes and expenditures: Language (Should it be printed in everyone’s first language?); Ethics and Privacy (How confidential are people’s responses?); Cost (How big should the sample be?); Cultural/geographical sensitivity (What considerations should you make for people living in rural areas? Urban areas? For francophones versus anglophones? Does it make a difference?)

Suggestions for Assessment:
Note if students realize data collection involves issues to be addressed before beginning.

Class discusses how the format of a graph, such as the size of the intervals, the width of bars and the visual representation, may lead to the misinterpretation of the data.

Suggestions for Assessment:
Note if students realize and explain the different conclusions that could have been reached from the data display.

Acquire

Analyze a case study of data collection and identify potential problems related to appropriate language, ethics, cost, privacy or cultural sensitivity. [Gather and Make Sense]

Teacher Tip:
Examples of potential problems while surveying might be: giving out information about family or friends; questioning students who seem to be lonely or do not have a lot of friends, about friendship; asking about ethnic background in a survey; investigating whether students choose friends because of religion or gender.

Students research and report on the appropriateness and validity of various types of surveys, such as public opinion polls, telephone surveys, tv/radio ratings, self-rating scales, electronic surveys. [Gather and Make Sense, Produce to Show Understanding]  The report should include discussion of sample size/source, appropriate language, ethics, cost, privacy, cultural sensitivity, and honesty of responses for the different types of surveys.

Identify conclusions that are inconsistent with a given data set or graph and explain the misinterpretation.

Suggestions for Assessment:
Note if students realize and explain how conclusion could have been reached and should have been reached from the data display.

Apply

Students formulate a question and collect data electronically for an investigation (e.g., grade 8 student use of the Internet). [Plan and Question, Gather and Make Sense] Students select, defend, and use appropriate methods of collecting their data. Students display their data in a variety of ways, including an example of manipulated data display that may lead to misinterpretation of the data. [Produce to Show Understanding] Students describe any issues they considered when planning, carrying out and reporting on their investigation.

Suggestions for Assessment:
Target assessment on only a few of the many tagged outcomes and descriptors in this summative activity.