“Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics!”

Learning Intention: Students will understand that data can be displayed in various ways and they will be able to interpret different types of graphs, including bar graphs, pie charts, stem-and-leaf plots and scatter plots.

Success Criteria: Students will complete the following activites and be able to explain what the graphs tell us about the data collected.

The above quote, popularised by Mark Twain, refers to the ways that politicians can sometimes “manipulate the data” to suppport decision-making. The same data can often be used to support or disprove a theory, depending on the emphasis. Over the next couple of weeks we will use the data from the CensusAtSchool questionnaire to learn more about summary statistics and graphing. Some of the activities we will do are:

You can use the random data sampler to display the data relevant to each question.

Maths in the AFL

Geelong_AFL

Image Source

Congratulations to the Penshurst and Hawkesdale/Macarthur U16 teams on their performance in the grand final at Lake Bolac on Saturday. We are coming up to AFL grand finals too soon, so it is a good time to look at some of the maths involved in football. Ian Lowe, from the Maths Association of Victoria, has produced a free resource for upper primary and lower secondary students, with lots of current pictures and maths problems. You can download the free resource at the MAV site. Year 7 students can access the booklet on the Student Public Drive: 6/7 Maths Folder. You can print it out (22 pages with lots of pictures) but I would prefer that you copy the word file onto your netbooks and complete the questions on your computer. When you have finished, rename the document with your name (eg. JamesAFL) and  email me the file.

Grade 6 students will need to complete this survey about the 1:1 netbook trial and this literacy and numeracy survey.