Understanding Graphs of Statistical Data

· Brief description of students for whom activity is appropriate

Small class (dozen or so learners), multi level (pre-GED through beginning GED),

· Purpose of Activity (math learning Objectives)

A purpose of this activity is to have students interpret data (from US Census Bureau on income and poverty) from a newspaper article that uses both text and graphs.

Learners will be able to:

- Explain how a graph used is a visual representation, e.g. of income and poverty

- Connect data displayed on the graph with text and background knowledge

- Compare/contrast different sets of numbers, e.g. for age & ethnic groups

- Demonstrate an understanding that median is the middle value and that it is need not be greatly affected by changes in the way values are distributed

· Strands addressed

Statistics and Probability: Read and interpret data representations (Levels 4, 5, & 6)

Statistics and Probability: Describe data using descriptions, statistics and trend terminology. (Levels 4, 5, & 6)

· Materials needed

Newspaper article reporting on changes in poverty and income for U.S. population groups.

· Steps in activity

- Preview article

- Discuss terminology and vocabulary

- Have learners identify the US median household income according to the Census Bureau and have them discuss whether or not they think it is representative of people they know

- Have learners identify from the graph and text which groups suffered the biggest drops in median income

- Discuss why this might be so (refer to age groups as well as ethnic groups)

- Have learners identify which group(s) had the least decline in poverty

- Discuss how poverty for Hispanics could decline even though median income fell

· Assessment

- Evaluate learner’s answers to specific questions that require them to connect the bar graph information on median incomes for different groups with the claims in the text. For example, can a learner pick out which age groups had the biggest and smallest declines in median income?

- Evaluate learner’s written or oral explanation of why some groups suffered greater income declines than others.

-

· Extension of activity

Ask students to study the bar graph showing the median incomes of different age groups, and then construct a line graph that shows median income as a function of age.