Conducting statistical investigations to develop learner statistical thinking

Introduction

Rethinking Junior Statistics What do we wish students better understood in the senior school? We don’t have time in the senior school to teach big foundational ideas. Not so assessment driven Opportunity to teach BIG IDEAS A lot more freedom and flexibility

Key statistical concepts types of variables (science department) shape and distribution strong interpretation skills of dot plots and box-and-whisker plots samples and populations, sampling variability and making an inference develop insight into the process of conducting a statistical investigation

Senior learners need to be able to: conduct their own investigation/ experiment make insightful comments about the results of others' investigations It is difficult for learners to make insightful comments without first appreciating the complexities of conducting an investigation

I am keen for the junior learners in work in groups to conduct their own investigations to help them realise that there are different ways of collecting and recording data and that decisions made in the planning stage will impact on the results found.

Assessment task want them to learn big ideas don’t need accurate results assessment-for-learning

data collected from sample, make inference about population Teaching progression 1 group “typical” 2 groups “compare” data collected from population   9Maths? data collected from sample, make inference about population 10Maths

Year 9 to focus on 1 group of learners what they can see about that 1 group of learners what is “typical” “I wonder what the typical number of letters in a Year 9 learner’s name is” make an inference about all Year 9s in context eg. My class is really sporty so our class’s results will be better than the general Year 9 results

Year 10 to compare 2 different groups of learners samples need to come from 2 different populations Year 8 learners vs Year 10 learners make an inference about the populations in context

Teaching sequence PPDAC – where everything fits in. I like to see big picture first Start with categorical. Bar graphs or pictograms Shape/ distribution is a key focus of this topic Need to teach shape before calculations Pip Arnold’s stuff on Census at Schools

Graphs - in Context want learners to realise that each dot on the dot plot represents something within that context eg. someone’s shoe length, hand span

Teaching Activity How many different countries have you travelled to? write answer on piece of paper physically form a line ordering counts find 5 point summary

Teaching Activity draw dot plot and box-and-whisker each dot is a particular learner’s count median is … every dot has a story!

Teaching Sequence 2 weeks teaching first Start investigations 2 split lessons Collect data

Investigation conditions Problem and Plan written collaboratively in groups Data collected collaboratively in groups Analysis and Conclusion written individually under test conditions, open book

Choose a Question Try to come up with some examples of questions students might like to investigate Identify any issues they would face in trying to collect appropriate data Decide whether or not these issues could be addressed

Questions What type of music do you like? How old are you? How much time do you spend playing sport? How long can you hold a wall sit for? What is the length of your foot? How many windows do you have in your house? How sporty are you?

9Maths: Data collection Collected data from their own class in groups

10Maths: Data Collection Needed to collect data from 2 different Year levels Organised a timetable where each Year 10 class paired up with a Year 8 class Year 10’s practised collecting data from their own class first Even if not fully ready to complete assessment task, still stick to timetable Group Stations

Analysis Hand-drawn graphs – no technology Absent students were given data by their group members

Conclusion wrote their conclusions handout

Comments A lot of buy-in from learners High quality work Writing in context Insightful comments Does this make sense to me? Not enough time on sampling variability

Probability No test Fun and challenging activities

Questions

Thank you!