D1.2 Collect data through observations, experiments, and interviews to answer questions of interest that focus on qualitative and quantitative data, and organize the data using frequency tables.
Activity 1: Question of Interest
Ask the students to think about the following scenario.
Students in a Grade 3 class want to know the reading preferences of elementary school students in order to suggest what kinds of books should be purchased for the school library. They decide to conduct a survey.
Here are some examples of student-proposed survey questions with possible observations.
| Question | Observations |
|---|---|
| What is your favourite kind of book? | This question can be difficult to understand if one does not know how to describe different kinds of books. It can therefore generate quite a large number of different responses and complicate the task of drawing conclusions about students' preferences. |
| Do you like to read fairy tales? | This question is clear and does not seem open to interpretation. In addition, it facilitates data collection since the only two anticipated answers are yes and no. It shows how many students like or dislike fairy tales, but it gives no information about students' preferences for other kinds of books. |
What would be your first choice of book from the following?
|
This multiple-choice question reduces the number of possible answers, allowing for more effective organization and interpretation. |
Source: translated from Guide d’enseignement efficace des mathématiques, de la maternelle à la 3e année, Traitement des données et probabilité, p. 64.
Activity 2: Thinking About Variability
Ask the students to think about the following scenario.
The students in a Grade 3 class want to organize activities for the Grade 1 students. They decide to conduct a survey of all Grade 1 students to determine if they prefer indoor or outdoor activities.
Teachers should then take the opportunity to encourage students to think about the conditions under which the survey should be conducted and why. For example:
- In your opinion, is it better to conduct the survey in the morning or just before lunch? It is better to do the survey in the morning because just before lunch, students may be anxious to go out and play, so they may be inclined to choose outdoor activities.)
- Is today a good day to conduct the survey? (Since it is very cold outside, it may not be the best day because students may not feel like going outside. They may choose to do the activities indoors.)
Source: translated from Guide d’enseignement efficace des mathématiques, de la maternelle à la 3e année, Traitement des données et probabilité, p. 65.
Activity 3: A Good Sandwich (Data Organization)
Group students into groups of three. Give each team member a different page of Appendix 5.4 (A Good Sandwich) and ask them to answer the questions without showing their paper to the other team members. When all team members have finished, ask them to look at their teammates' papers and respond. Then lead a class discussion to highlight the advantages and disadvantages of each of the three types of representations and the importance of organizing the data.
Source: translated from Guide d’enseignement efficace des mathématiques, de la 4e à la 6e année, Traitement des données et probabilité, p. 217.