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Reading charts
and graphs, interpreting data, and making decisions based
on information are key skills to being a successful worker
and informed citizen. Being an informed citizen includes understanding
statistics and probability. Adults cannot make reasonable
decisions unless they understand the source and validity of
statistical information.
Be sure to look
at the different set of resources
listed at the Student/Learner webpage for this topic:
 Air
Pollution—What’s the Solution?
Use online real-time data to guide student discovery of the
science behind the causes and effects of ground level ozone.
This resources contains student worksheets and links to online
data sources.
 CIESE:
Online Classroom Data Projects
The Center for Improved Engineering and Science Education
has a marvelous collection of classroom data projects. These
inter-disciplinary projects all use real world applications
based on data from the Internet. The project descriptions
include connections to the National Council of Teachers of
Mathematics Standards and to the National Science Education
Standards. Try The Gulf Stream Voyage–an Investigation
of Ocean Currents.
 CIESE:
Collaborative Projects
(See above) These real-time collaborative data projects
use the power of the Internet to reach groups around the world.
Try "Down the Drain–How Much Water Do You Use",
or the "Noon Day Project". These are wonderful interdisciplinary
projects. Some may require some word changes to avoid reference
to middle schools and to parents.
 Data
Tips of the Month from BRIDGE
Enliven the learning of data analysis with real-time data
from the BRIDGE's Ocean Science Teacher Resource Center. Data
Tips are learner-friendly scientific data sets, highlighting
a different classroom activity each month. An archive
of the previous several years is categorized by subject (biology,
human activities. ecology, physics, chemistry, climate, and
geology.) Tips
on using research data in the classroom. Library
of online data.
 Exploring
Data
This website may sound daunting in its opening statement
that the "website provides curriculum support materials
for teachers of introductory statistics", but it offers
a wealth of information and interesting data problems. Activities,
worksheets, and extension materials are offered for patterns,
stemplots, dotplots, and histograms. This site was developed
in Australia to fill the needs of the many teachers who have
very basic knowledge of statistics.
 Exploring
Data
This Math Forum website was designed to support workshops
on statistics. Included are links by level to relevant statistics
Standards; lesson plans for collecting, analyzing, and/or
displaying data; sources of data sets, general information,
courses, and statistics software on the Web; and an "Oceans
of Data" page with a data set (diving records) to download,
instructions for making a ClarisWorks or Excel graph, suggested
questions for discussion, and related 'ocean links' (NOAA,
SeaWifs, tide tables).
 Global
Grocery List
Students share local grocery prices that are then sorted
and can be viewed online. Lessons are included to suggest
ways in which these data can be used.. These real life data
are highly relevant to the adult learner and teacher!
 Graphs
This website offers instruction in how to use the Claris
Works spreadsheet file to make a variety of graphs. The instructions
could be easily adapted to adult literacy programs; these
instructions refer to middle school students.
 The
Hand Squeeze
Use this lesson plan to develop strategies for an activity
in group data collection and analysis. The Hand Squeeze problem
is a classic!
MathWebquests–Real
Data
This site contains seven different math webquests, written
by students. (In some cases there are references to secondary
grade levels.) The webquests are engaging and make use of
real-world data. Interesting questions are posed, such as
asking which cities have the highest "livability"
ratings; which airfares are the best deal, and how one can
compare basketball statistics. Learners are asked to use Internet
resources to obtain data that are then analyzed and used in
various mathematical exercises. As the website states: "Math
webquests involve reasoning and critical thinking in a constructivist
setting. (They) involve all five of the process standards
in the NCTM Goals 2000: problem solving, reasoning, communication,
connections, and representation."
Musical
Plates—A Study of Earthquakes and Plate Tectonics
In this project, students use real-time earthquake and volcano
data from the Internet to explore the relationship between
earthquakes, plate tectonics, and volcanoes. There are great
opportunities to collect and display important information
affecting the lives of people around the world.
 National
Library of Interactive Mathematics—
data analysis and probability activities
Use this resource of virtual manipulatives for activities
which teach skills of data analysis while using online technology.
One of many good activities is "Height
and Hand Relationships," where learners plot data
points on an online scatterplot and determine relationships.
Pop
Clock
While this site is listed for grades 8-12 mathematics,
it can be used with students in basic education classes. The
questions posed in the site are focused on entry level algebra
I students but can be changed depending on the level needed.
Students visit the Census Bureau Internet homepage to gather
data regarding trends in population. Then they make predictions
about future population distributions.
 Population
Growth
Use these activities and online data to teach about population
growth. The activities
Involve an examination of linear, quadratic, and exponential
models.
 Population
Growth and Balance
This website gives learners the opportunity to use a mathematical
model to conduct population dynamics simulation experiments.
Learners are given information (about oak trees, squirrels,
and hawks) with which to run population models.
 Project
Interactivate
Interactive lessons, discussion, and activities enable
the teacher to extend hands-on activities in the classroom
and provide new content and practice in four areas: Number
and Operation Concepts, Geometry and Measurement Concepts,
Function and Algebra Concepts, and Probability and Data Analysis
Concepts. Each activity comes with supplementary pages that
can be accessed from the activity page. "What"
gives background, "How" gives instructions,
and "Why" gives curriculum context. Probability
and Data Analysis Concepts includes an introduction to
probability, conditional probability, sampling, expected value,
statistics, histograms, boxplots, the normal curve, as well
as statistical simulations. Lesson plans and resources for
the teacher are also available
Right-Handed
or Left-handed
This is another activity for group data collection and
analysis. Students are asked to collect data, then organize
it, graph it, and finally analyze it. A final "research"
question is posed. This site is appropriate for all learner
levels.
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