Teaching young mathematicians about collecting and analyzing data allows for a variety of fun and engaging activities. Here, children observe the weather every day for a month, recording their observations in the form of a bar graph....

How many different ways can you model data? Scholars learn several in the final module in a series of nine. Learners model data with dot plots, box plots, histograms, and scatter plots. They also analyze the data based on the data...

Explore four web-based interactive sites to develop a baseline understanding of statistics. Learners play a series of penny basketball games and collect data regarding their shooting statistics. Groups decide who is the "top" penny...

In this math/nutrition instructional activity, the nutritional value of 3 snack foods is recorded on a data chart and represented on a bar graph. Students analyze and compare information, construct data charts and related bar graphs, and...

Ground-truthing ... is it even a word? The last installment of a five-part series analyzes how scientists collect sea surface temperature data. Scholars use government websites to compare temperature data collected directly from buoys...

Would you rely on a fortune cookie for advice? The lesson plan first requires future statisticians to categorize 100 fortune cookie fortunes into four types: prophecy, advice, wisdom, and misc. The lesson plan goes on to have learners...

Students gather historical snow cover and temperature data from the MY NASA DATA Web site. They compare this data to data gathered using ground measurements from the ALISON Web site for Shageluk Lake. They graph both sets of data and...

What did gender have to do with the survival rates of the Donner Party? Using comparative box plots, classes compare the ages of the survivors and nonsurvivors. Using the same method, individuals make conclusions about the...

High schoolers in chemistry or health courses look at the material safety data sheet (MSDS) and periodic table of elements to gather information about mercury and lead, two toxic materials that have been found in food products. They read...

Does writing the name of a color in a different colored ink affect one's ability to read it? Scholars design an experiment to answer this question. They collect the data, analyze the statistics, and draw a conclusion based on...

The battle of the sexes? Scholars first examine data on hurricane-related deaths and create graphical displays. They then use the data and displays to consider whether hurricanes with female names result in more deaths than hurricanes...

Students observe clouds. In this deep convective clouds lesson, students analyze cloud data recorded over one month and draw conclusions based on results.  Students predict "Thunderstorm Season" and prepare to defend their decision...

Seventh graders interpret data. In this lesson on types of graphs, 7th graders construct, interpret, and analyze different graphs. This lesson includes worksheets and resources.

Students explore the concept data sets.  In this data sets lesson plan, students find the 5 number summaries for salaries of teachers and compare them with 5 number summaries of professional baseball players.  Students use box...

Become a bean counter. Pupils use a fun activity to design and execute an experiment to determine whether they can grab more beans with their dominant hand or non-dominant hand. They use the class data to create scatter plots and then...

There is bias in many aspects of our lives, and math is no exception! Learners explore provided data to understand the meaning of biased and random samples. The resource includes various data sets from the same population, and...

Can we break the record? Groups use provided data detailing the number of visitors to a blog to determine if the number of blog views breaks the previous record. They must take rates into consideration to make their estimates—a great...

After completing an assessment task where they express numbers as the difference of squares (i.e., 9 = 5^2 – 4^2), class members note any patterns that they see in the problems.

What better way to make predictions about future weather and climate patterns than with actual climate data from the past? Young climatologists analyze data from 400,000 to 10,000 years ago to determine if climate has changed over...

This is a twist on the old "guess how many jellybeans" game. Using estimation and math skills, learners participate in a fun "mystery jars" activity, trying to make educated guesses at how many objects are in two jars. The basic activity...

All disciplines use data! A seven-lesson unit teaches learners the basics of analyzing all types of data. The unit begins with a study of the shape of data displays and the analysis of a normal distribution. Later lessons discuss the...

This is the grown-up version of the classic "float an egg in salt water" experience, plus an experiment in soap making. High schoolers explore density, but more importantly, practice accuracy, precision, and the use of significant...

Quick! Snap up the lesson. Scholars first use an online app to collect data on reaction times by clicking a button when the color of a box changes. They then plot and analyze the data by considering measures of center, measures of...

Use statistics to decide if NFL quarterbacks earn their salaries! Learners study correlation coefficients after using technology to calculate regression equations. Through the data, they learn the meaning of correlation and correlation...