1. A statistical investigation
Helicopters
A statistical investigation

2. “How does rotor length affect the flight
Step One:
Write down the question you want to answer:
“How does rotor length affect the flight
time of the helicopter?”
Anything written in yellow should be copied into your book

3. Step Two: Plan your investigation:
“I will make two helicopters, one with a rotor length of _______, the other with a rotor length of ________. I will trial each one ten times and record the time taken for each helicopter to fall to the ground.

4. Record the time taken for each in a table.
Step Three:
Do the experiment! Work in pairs to drop each of your helicopters ten times.
Record the time taken for each in a table.

5. Back to Back Stem and Leaf Plot
Step Four:
Analyse the data by calculating statistics and drawing graphs. (Tick them off as you do them)
STATISTICS
GRAPHS
Mean
Tally Chart
Median
Back to Back Stem and Leaf Plot
Mode
Histogram (2)
Range
Box and Whisker (2)
Quartiles
Interquartile range

6. I notice descriptions… I interpret from …….statements
The means show that the helicopter with the longest / shortest rotor stayed in the air the longest.
The median for the longer rotor was ______ longer / shorter than for my other helicopter.
From the histogram you can see that most of the data is close / is not close to the mean.
The range shows that the helicopters were consistent / not consistent.
The data for the helicopter with the shortest / longest rotor was more spread out.
The box and whisker graph shows that half of the values were between ______ and ____.
Overall we can see that the longer / the shorter the rotor the longer the flight time.

7. Step Five:
Write a conclusion. Tell the whole investigation story from the beginning. Include your major findings (answer the question & use statistics/graphs as evidence.) Who would this be useful for and what do you wonder now….further investigation.

8. Helicopters       FOLD IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS ROTOR
 CUT ALONG THE SOLID LINES.
FOLD ALONG THE DOTTED LINES 
TAIL
ROTOR 
FOLD IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS 
ROTOR
 CUT ALONG THE SOLID LINES.
FOLD ALONG THE DOTTED LINES 
TAIL
ROTOR 