Secondary activity
Under pressure?
Curriculum links
Mathematics: Statistics strand – level 5
- plan and conduct statistical investigations of variables associated with different categories within a data set, or variations of variables over time
- find, and authenticate by reference to appropriate displays, data measures such as mean, median, mode, inter-quartile range, and range
- discuss discrete and continuous numeric data presented in quality displays
- collect and display comparative samples in appropriate displays such as back-to-back stem-and-leaf, box-and-whisker, and composite bar graphs.
Background
This activity Under pressure? asks students to investigate the problem of perceived prejudice against single people. Many organisations offer cut rates to couples, and there are often negative connotations to terms such as ‘spinster’. A discussion of some of these issues could be a good way to introduce the activity.
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 and what sorts of comments are expected for justifications. It is not the only, or necessarily the best, way of doing the activity.
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/
The sample answers below are based on the complete dataset. Students could also do graphs and make comments on the categorical variables.
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