Grades 6-9
25 activities – 232 pages

In the age of information, students must become comfortable dealing with data. Statistics and Probability uses creative, fun activities to show students how data are gathered, how to analyze data to draw conclusions, and how to use those generalizations to make predictions and choices.

Students will learn about surveys and sampling by polling classmates and estimating the number of characters on a page of classified ads. They will explore measures of central tendency (mean, median, and mode) and spread and learn the appropriate displays to help interpret the data, including line plots, scatter plots, stern-and-leaf plots, and box-and-whisker plots. They will explore correlations of head circumference to height, ball drop height to bounce height, and arm span to height.

Imagine the enthusiasm when in “Color Samples” students are given bags of M&Ms and told to identify the different colored candies and to quantify them by color groups for each bag. Graphs and statistical information will be developed, and students will discover how they can make predictions regarding how many red, yellow or green M&Ms might be found in another bag. Students gain concrete vision of statistics in motion, and of course, are delighted when they are allowed to literally eat their data following the lesson!
Games and real-world scenarios provide the opportunity for studying probability, including calculations of both experimental and theoretical values. The variety of real-world data and applications to familiar situations also help students appreciate the relevance of these topics.

Teachers will enjoy the straightforward procedures and simple materials that make the activities in Statistics and Probability easy to use.