Math Awareness Month, Grades 6-8
2012 Theme: Mathematics, Statistics, and the Data Deluge
Curriculum resources, including lesson plans, background reading, printables and video, for grades 6-8 address the 2012 Math Awareness Month theme of mathematics, statistics, and the data deluge.
Lesson Plans
Adventures in Statistics
Pairs of students in grades 3-8 measure the length and width of a classroom. The entire class graphs, computes, and analyzes the complete class data and presents the results.
Bears in a Boat
Students in grades 3-8 create aluminum foil boats that are filled with plastic bears until they sink. The data from two attempts is collected and used to make two class box-and-whisker plots.
The Hand Squeeze
Students in grades 6-12 measure how long it takes for a hand squeeze to pass around a circle. They record, graph, and analyze the data, and make predictions about the time it would take for more people/greater distances.
Additional Lesssons
Illuminations - Data Analysis & Probability
PreK-12 lesson plans and activities.
Background Resources
Math Awareness Month
The official website of Math Awareness Month.
Khan Academy
Search or scroll for 85 brief video tutorials in aspects of statistics.
Flowing Data
Explores how designers, statisticians, and computer scientists visualize data to better understand it. Blog and tutorials.
The Data and Story Library
An online library of datafiles and stories that illustrate the use of basic statistics methods.
Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait
Data visualizations.
Running the Numbers II: Portraits of global mass culture
Data visualizations.
Data.gov
Provides access to datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government.
MSTE (Mathematics, Science and Technology Education) Online Data List
Links to recent data in mathematics, science, and technology education.
Sports Data Page
A collection of links to archived sports data.
Infographic: Data Deluge - 8 Zettabytes of Data by 2015
This downloadable infographic illustrates the growing demand for data storage.
The Age of Big Data
Job outlook for the data savvy.
At Davos, Discussions of a Global Data Deluge
“Today’s topic de jour: data. Lots of data.”
One Researcher's Solution to the Data Deluge: Enlist 'Citizen Scientists'
Discusses recruiting the general public to give scientists a hand with all kinds of research.
Infographic: Data Deluge - 8 Zettabytes of Data by 2015
This downloadable infographic illustrates the growing demand for data storage.
Interactives & Printables
Interactives
NLVM Data Analysis & Probability Manipulatives
A collection of interactives for PreK-12 mathematics instruction.
Interactivate: Statistics
Search or scroll to find 31 interactives in statistical concepts.
Printables
Programs
Learning Math: Data Analysis, Statistics, and Probability
A video- and Web-based course on basic concepts of statistics for K-8 teachers.
K-12 Statistics Education Webinars
Recorded web-based seminars for K-12 statistics teachers.
Video
Peter Donnelly Shows How Stats Fool Juries (21:24)
Donnelly reveals the common mistakes humans make in interpreting statistics — and the devastating impact these errors can have on the outcome of criminal trials.
Chris Jordan Pictures Some Shocking Stats (11:17)
Jordan presents an arresting view of what Western culture looks like. His supersized images picture statistics.
Numb3rs Episodes by Topic
Many programs deal with statistics and data analysis.
The Joy of Stats (59:13)
Hans Rosling says there’s nothing boring about stats. This video proves it.
Hans Rosling's 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes - The Joy of Stats
An excerpt from The Joy of Stats. See below for the complete program.
- Hans Rosling Shows The Best Stats You've Ever Seen (19:54)
- Hans Rosling On HIV: New Facts And Stunning Data Visuals (10:00)
Paper Clips (1:24)
The children of the Whitwell, TN Middle School collect 6 million paper clips to visualize 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis. (Check local libraries for this 2004 documentary.)
COMMENTS:
mark | 2012/05/04
mark | 2012/05/04