US Department of Commerce
Applying Correlation Coefficients - Educational Attainment and Unemployment
Correlate education with unemployment rates. Individuals compare state and regional unemployment rates with education levels by calculating the correlation coefficient and analyzing scatter plots. Pupils begin by looking at regional data...
College Board
2015 AP® Statistics Free-Response Questions
Statistics is all about making inferences. Can you infer how your pupils will fair on their AP® exams? Collect your own data by giving them practice tests such as the 2015 free-response exam. The six-question test includes topics such as...
Radford University
Is it Really a Small World After All?
Working in groups, learners research four countries' populations over the past 30 years. Using the data collected, the teams find regression equations that best fit the data. Taking the regression equations, they then make predictions...
Radford University
At the Gas Pump
Given the price of crude oil, gasoline, and diesel for the past several years, pupils plot the data to determine whether a correlation exists. Learners determine a regression line and predict the price of gasoline and diesel in the...
Radford University
Environmental Issues
Pupils investigate the air pollution situation in China by fitting a curve to historical data. They dig deeper into environmental issues that are of interest and provide a mathematical analysis of the issue. Class members develop a route...
Statistics Education Web
The United States of Obesity
Mississippi has both the highest obesity and poverty rate in the US. Does the rest of the data show a correlation between the poverty and obesity rate in a state? Learners tackle this question as they practice their skills of regression....
Curated OER
Prescient Grading
Do homework grades really determine test scores? Learn whether lines of best fit, correlation coefficients, and residuals can be used to determine test scores when given homework grades. (It would certainly save teachers time in grading...
PBL Pathways
Students and Teachers 2
Examine trends in student-to-teacher ratios over time. Building from the first task in the two-part series, classes now explore the pattern of student-to-teacher ratios using a non-linear function. After trying to connect the pattern to...
Radford University
Can I Create a Line/Curve of Best Fit to Model Water Drainage?
Learners collect data on the amount of water left in a bottle over time. They graph the data to determine whether the scatter plot shows a curved or straight relationship. Group members then determine an equation for the curve of best...
Curated OER
Basketball Bounces, Assessment Variation 1
This highly scaffolded, summative assessment tasks learners to choose the model that represents the height of a bouncing basketball given the data in graph and table form. Learners then use the model to answer questions about the...
Curated OER
Linear and Exponential Models
Students linearize data to determine if an exponential model is suitable. In this linearizing data to determine if an exponential model is suitable lesson, students graph the residuals of sets of data that appear to have an exponential...
Curated OER
Math Lesson: What Do You Want to Know? - Country Statistics
Students are able to identify the characteristics of a variety of graphs (i.e. bar graph, line graph, pie graph, scatter plot, population pyramids, etc.) They recognize how the type of data to be presented plays a role in choosing the...
Texas Instruments
Making Predictions Using Systems of Equations
Students explore the concept of systems of equations. In this system of equations lesson, students enter data into lists on their calculators about 100 meter dash times. Students plot the points using a scatter plot and perform a linear...
Curated OER
Carbon Dating
Simulate C-14 decay using M&M and Reese's Pieces candies. For this scatter-plot lesson, students perform an experiment to simulate the half life of C-14. Information is plotted on a scatter-plot. Students answer four comprehension...
Curated OER
Corn-Crop is a Bin-Buster
Learners calculate percent change and create lists of data. They enter the corresponding bushels of corn measured in billions to their list and display, then convert the acres into scientific notation and use the value on the home screen...
Curated OER
A Tall Story
High schoolers investigate the growth rate of a man named Bob Wadlow. In this growth rate of a man lesson, students determine if the growth rate of this particular man was normal or abnormal. High schoolers bring in data of...
Rice University
Introductory Statistics
Statistically speaking, the content covers several grades. Featuring all of the statistics typically covered in a college-level Statistics course, the expansive content spans from sixth grade on up to high school. Material...
Radford University
Modeling the Number of Starbucks Stores
Drink your coffee, then marvel over the rise of Starbucks. Scholars use provided data on the number of Starbucks stores from 1987 through 2014 to create scatter plots. They then determine the equation for the curve that best fits the...
US Department of Commerce
Educational Attainment and Marriage Age - Testing a Correlation Coefficient's Significance
Do women with college degrees get married later? Using a provided scatter plot of the percentage of women who earn bachelor's degrees and the median age at which women first get married over time, pupils conduct a linear regression...
Curated OER
Piecewise Modeling with Multiple Functions: Federal Debt
Young scholars analyze data on debt and write an equation. In this statistics lesson, students are given data from different time periods, and are asked to graph and analyze the data. They work in groups, and are assigned different parts...
Willow Tree
Approximating a Line of Best Fit
You may be able to see patterns visually, but mathematics quantifies them. Here learners find correlation in scatterplots and write equations to represent that relationship. They fit a line to the data, find two points on the line, and...
Shodor Education Foundation
Regression
How good is the fit? Using an interactive, classmates create a scatter plot of bivariate data and fit their own lines of best fit. The applet allows pupils to display the regression line along with the correlation coefficient. As a final...
Virginia Department of Education
Curve of Best Fit
Which function models the data best? Pupils work through several activities to model data with a variety of functions. Individuals begin by reviewing the shapes of the functions and finding functions that will fit plotted data points. By...
Houston Area Calculus Teachers
Related Rates
Use a hands-on approach to exploring the concepts of related rates in your AP Calculus class. Individuals explore the effect of the rate of change on a variable related to a variable they control. After analyzing the data they...