Lesson Plan
Illustrative Mathematics

Weather Graph Data

For Teachers K - 2nd Standards
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....
Activity
Fort Bend Independent School District

Data Analysis - AP Statistics

For Students 11th - Higher Ed Standards
What better way to study survey design than to design your own survey! Bring a versatile data analysis project to your AP Statistics class, and encourage them to apply the practices from their instructions to a real-world survey...
Lesson Plan
Illustrative Mathematics

Favorite Ice Cream Flavor

For Teachers Pre-K - 2nd Standards
What better way to engage children in a math lesson than by talking about ice cream? Using a pocket chart or piece of chart paper, the class works together creating a bar graph of the their favorite ice cream flavors. Learners then work...
Activity
Houston Area Calculus Teachers

Collecting Driving Data

For Students 11th - Higher Ed
Give AP Calculus classes the opportunity to check the accuracy of their calculations! A calculus activity involves the collection of data, the application of mathematics, and the analysis of the accuracy of results. Young mathematicians...
Activity
2
2
Teach Engineering

Using Hooke's Law to Understand Materials

For Teachers 10th - 12th Standards
Provide a Hooke for a lesson on elasticity with an activity that has groups investigate a set of springs. They use a set procedure to collect data to calculate the spring constant for each spring using Hooke's Law. The groups...
Activity
Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Spreadsheet Tutorial 3: Column Graphs, Error Bars, and Standard Error of the Mean

For Students 9th - 12th
There's absolutely no error in using the tutorial! Learners use spreadsheets to create column or bar graphs with error bars. They also learn how to calculate the standard error of the mean in the tutorial. This is the third installment...
Lesson Plan
Illustrative Mathematics

Telling a Story With Graphs

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Turn your algebra learners into meteorologists. Learners are given three graphs that contain information about the weather in Santa Rosa, California during the month of February, 2012. Graph one shows temperatures, graph two displays the...
Unit Plan
Curated OER

Button Bonanza

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Collections of data represented in stem and leaf plots are organized by young statisticians as they embark some math engaging activities.
Activity
US Department of Agriculture

Sink or Float?

For Teachers 2nd - 3rd Standards
Will it sink or will it float? Learners predict the outcome as they drop random objects into a container of water. Then, they keep track of the results and record the data in a t-chart to draw a final conclusion.
Activity
Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Scientific Inquiry Using WildCam Gorongosa

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
How do scientists determine what questions to ask to meet their research goals? Help your class develop an inquiry mindset with a lesson based on studies in the Gorongosa National Park. Partners create their own research questions by...
Activity
NASA

Global Air Temperatures Graph: Student Activity

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Analyze years of hard climate change evidence in minutes. Climatologists evaluate graphical data about climate change by answering questions. Scientists work collaboratively using a literacy cube or virtual die that directs them through...
Activity
1
1
Teach Engineering

Building-Testing-Improving Paper Airplanes: Head's Up!

For Teachers 5th - 7th Standards
Take foldables to all new heights. Pupils build and fly different types of paper airplanes in the 14th portion of a 22-part unit on aviation. Groups collect data on distance and flight time for each plane and compare the data from the...
Activity
1
1
Teach Engineering

Energy on a Roller Coaster

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Roll with your class into the idea of conservation of energy. Pupils use a roller coaster track to collect data to reinforce the concept of conservation of energy and the influence of friction. Class members then create a graph from...
Activity
1
1
Curated OER

Mathemafish Population

For Teachers 8th - 11th Standards
It's shark week! In this problem, young mathematically minded marine biologists need to study the fish population by analyzing data over time. The emphasis is on understanding the average rate of change of the population and drawing...
Activity
Regents Prep

Activity to Show Sample Population and Bias

For Teachers 7th - 9th Standards
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...
Activity
Consortium for Ocean Leadership

Nannofossils Reveal Seafloor Spreading Truth

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
Spread the word about seafloor spreading! Junior geologists prove Albert Wegener right in an activity that combines data analysis and deep ocean exploration. Learners analyze and graph fossil sample data taken from sites along the...
Activity
1
1
Teach Engineering

Start Networking!

For Students 7th - 10th Standards
Class members create their own social networks by collecting signatures before graphing the interactions with their fellow classmates. The degree distribution of the simulated social network is determined by calculating the degree of...
Activity
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

Eruptions: Old Faithful Geyser

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
How long do we have to wait? Given several days of times between eruptions of Old Faithful, learners create a graphical representation for two days. Groups combine their data to determine an appropriate wait time between eruptions.
Activity
1
1
Teach Engineering

Matching the Motion

For Teachers 7th - 9th Standards
It is not always easy to walk the straight and narrow. In the sixth portion of a nine-part unit, groups actively recreate a graph depicting motion. Individuals walk toward or away from a motion detector while trying to match a given...
Activity
Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Seed Dispersal in Tropical Forests

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
How do seeds get around? It's not like plants can control seed dispersal—or can they? Dig deeper into the amazing mechanisms of seed dispersal observed in tropical plants through interactives, a video, and plenty of hands-on data...
Activity
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

Varying Motion

For Students 9th - 12th
For this secondary mathematics learning exercise, high schoolers collect data based on a person’s motion. From this data, students create graphs comparing displacement, velocity, and acceleration to time. The five-page learning exercise...
Lesson Plan
Illustrative Mathematics

Chocolate Bar Sales

For Teachers 5th - 7th Standards
In this real-world example, algebra learners start to get a sense of how to represent the relationship between two variables in different ways. They start by looking at a partial table of values that define a linear relationship. They...
Activity
1
1
NOAA

Climate, Weather…What’s the Difference?: Make an Electronic Temperature Sensor

For Students 6th - 8th Standards
What's the best way to record temperature over a long period of time? Scholars learn about collection of weather and temperature data by building thermistors in the fourth installment of the 10-part Discover Your Changing World series....
Activity
101 Questions

Deodorant

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Smells like learning! Young scholars collect data on the length of time a stick of deodorant lasts. After modeling the data with a graph and function, they make predictions about deodorant use over time.