Secondary activities
Am I average?
Good stuff!
Curriculum links
Mathematics: Statistics strand – level 4
- plan a statistical investigation arising from the consideration of an issue or an experiment of interest
- collect appropriate data
- choose and construct quality data displays (frequency tables, bar charts, and histograms) to communicate significant features in measurement data.
Background
There are two activities in this resource. The first, Am I average?, uses the SURF for Schools dataset to explore the idea of the average person.
You may want to use a subset of the dataset where students are analysing the data manually.
The sample answers below are to show one way of answering the question about what defines the average person, and what sorts of comments are expected for justifications. It is not the only, or necessarily the best, way of doing the activity.
The second activity, Good stuff, has students collect their own data.
The problem-plan-data-analysis-conclusion (PPDAC) structure used in the activity fits with the draft new curriculum. Information on PPDAC can be found at the CensusAtSchool website:
www.censusatschool.org.nz/resources/how-kids-learn/
Sample answers
The sample answers below are based on the complete dataset.
Data and Analysis
1. Frequency tables:
| Gender |
|
Qualification |
|
| Female |
107 |
None |
39 |
| Male |
93 |
School |
66 |
|
|
Vocational |
67 |
|
|
Degree |
28 |
|
| Marital Status |
|
Ethnicity |
|
| Never |
88 |
European |
156 |
| Married |
70 |
Māori |
24 |
| Previously |
21 |
Pacific |
7 |
| Other |
21 |
Other |
13 |
|
| Income ($) |
|
Hours Worked |
|
| 0 < 250 |
39 |
0 < 10 |
21 |
| 250 < 500 |
50 |
10 < 20 |
27 |
| 500 < 750 |
53 |
20 < 30 |
22 |
| 750 < 1,000 |
38 |
30 < 40 |
25 |
| 1,000 < 1,250 |
14 |
40 < 50 |
75 |
| 1,250 < 1,500 |
1 |
50 < 60 |
19 |
| 1,500 < 1,750 |
4 |
60 < 70 |
7 |
| 1,750 < 2,000 |
1 |
70 < 80 |
4 |
2. Hours worked and Income should be grouped and in a histogram. Age should be histogram also, but a grouped bar graph (as shown) is often used where age is in whole years. The others could be either a pie or a bar graph. Pie graphs should only be used where there are a small number of divisions (4 or less). Otherwise they tend to be difficult to interpret. Clear title and labels for axes as well as a key (where necessary) are important.
|