statistical investigation questions

Statistical Investigations All the New Zealand CensusAtSchool activities have been developed using the investigative cycle: Problem, Plan, Data, Analysis, Conclusions.  Statisticians use this cycle and we think that it is important that students should begin to as well. Using real data means that real investigations can be carried out. Because the data is real, there is probably more than one story that can be told by the data.  Exploring stories in real data helps to make the process more meaningful and relevant for children. Problem Formulating and defining a statistical question is important as it tells students what to investigate and how to investigate it. Most investigations begin with a wondering ‘I wonder if boys are more technologically literate than girls?’  From this general question a statistical question needs to be developed so that a meaningful investigation can be carried out. All the terms in the questions need to be defined and understood by the students. Activities have been written to allow for both collecting data from the class and obtaining it from CensusAtSchool. While the suggestion is that students survey students in their class, you could also use a sample of data from CensusAtSchool. Lead the students through a series of questions to help them think about the problem and to develop a statistical question of their own. how do we go about answering this question? what do we need to know? how will we find the information that we need? what will we do with the information that we collect? who will find this information useful? is this information relevant to the problem? The variables and terms in the question need to be understood and defined by the students so they interpret the question correctly. The problem section is about what data to collect and who to collect it from and why it’s important. Plan Students learn more effectively if they.
Purpose:  In this unit students will identify how to plan and carry out a statistical investigation, looking at facts about their class as a context. Achievement Objectives:Achievement Objective: S2-1: Conduct investigations using the statistical enquiry cycle: posing and answering questions; gathering, sorting, and displaying category and whole-number data; communicating findings based on the data.AO elaboration and other teaching resources Specific Learning Outcomes:  write questions for statistical investigations and design a method of collection of datadisplay collected data in an appropriate formatmake statements about implications or possible actions based on the results of an investigationmake conclusions on the basis of statistical investigations. Description of mathematics:  It is vital when planning statistical investigations that the students understand the importance of the way that they plan, collect, record and present their information. If they are not consistent in the way they carry out any of these steps, they could alter their findings, therefore making their investigation invalid.In this unit the students will first look at choosing questions to investigate, making sure that the topic lends itself to being investigated statistically. They will then collect their data using tally charts. Once they have collected and recorded their data they will present their findings as bar graphs. Required Resource Materials:  Paper and pencils Presentation materials Key Vocabulary:   statistics, investigation, data, measurable, tally charts, axis, most, least, findings Activity:  Although this unit is set out as five sessions, to cover the topic of statistical investigations in depth will likely take longer. Some of the sessions, especially Sessions 4 and 5 dealing with data presentation, could easily be extended as a unit in themselves. Alternatively, this unit.
NZC Level 1 The key idea of statistical investigations at Level 1 is collecting data as evidence to tell a story about a question of interest. At Level 1 students should be working with survey data that they have collected about themselves and their classmates. As a class with their teacher they should be starting to use the PPDAC (Problem, Plan, Data, Analysis, Conclusion) cycle in their investigations. This involves posing an investigative question that they want to address, collecting and sorting data to answer the question, displaying the data, making statements about what the data shows and answering the question. Students are typically interested in questions like “who in our class has the most children in their family?”, or “what is the favourite fruit in our class?”. These pre-summary questions are suitable for students and this level and focus more on an individual than the aggregate of the data. Data displays are limited only by the students’ imaginations. For example, students might show the different types of shoes in the class by taking one shoe from each student and building a display. Students may well draw individual case plots, for example, they draw a graph of number of children in family, where the students’ names are on the horizontal axis and the number of children in family is on the vertical axis. Students will be making statements about individuals in their displays. For example, Hemi, Jane and Tiana have four children in their family. These statements need to reflect what the data is showing. This key idea is extended in the key idea of statistical investigations at NZC Level 2 where students are letting go of the individual’s story and moving towards telling the class story. NZC Level 2 The key idea of statistical investigations at level 2 is letting go of the individual’s story and moving towards telling the class story. At Level 2 students.
Students gain a better understanding of the statistical investigative process when they initiate, design and undertake entire investigations of their own. In the first instance, this is best undertaken in groups.A statistical investigation involves: choosing a context, and then the specific aspects that interest each group identifying the variables and the subjects of the investigation planning and carrying out the procedures for data collection to obtain random, fair and representative data exploring, summarising and representing the data analysing, making inferences based on the data, and preparing a report. Depending on how familiar you or your class are with conducting statistical investigations, you might choose to: model an investigationThis is a highly structured approach that provides students with an example of the features and purpose of the steps involved. provide a task that is a semi-structured investigation The basic outline of the investigation is determined by the task but students are required to make some choices relevant to the context. allow students to initiate, design and undertake investigations that interest them. Examples of student data investigations can be found in the TIMES module, Data Investigation and Interpretation 10. Modelling statistical investigations Model the steps of a statistical investigation by using a highly structured approach. Semi-structured statistical investigations Using semi-structured tasks can scaffold the development of students unfamiliar with the statistical investigative process. Undertaking statistical investigations Students gain a better understanding of the statistical investigative process and are more engaged when they undertake investigations of their own.