Fall 2007

Volume 1, Issue 1
Math 7 Unit 1 Dealing with Data
Dear Parents,
Welcome to the 2007-2008 school year! We are eager to work with you and your student as we learn new mathematical
concepts. The State of Georgia is introducing Performance Standards that call for students to be actively engaged in
doing math in order to learn math. In the classroom, students will frequently work on tasks and activities to discover and
apply mathematical thinking. Students will be expected to explain or justify their answers and to write clearly and
properly.
Mathematical content will be organized in units based on the content of the Georgia Performance Standards (GPS). Since
most textbooks published before the adoption of the new standards do not contain all the topics addressed in the new
GPS, the teacher will be providing content notes in class and supplementing practice through tasks. When appropriate,
problems will be assigned from the text.
Below is information regarding Unit 1, Dealing with Data. Look for future newsletters.
Dealing with Data
Students will be able to:
 Create frequency distributions
 Represent data in scatter plots and box & whisker plots, as well as graphs from 6 th grade
standards, and analyze by drawing conclusions about the data
 Find measures of central tendency (mean, median, mode)
 Find measures of variation (range, quartiles, interquartile range)

Vocabulary
Mean: The average of a set of numbers.
Median: The middle number of a set of numbers.
Mode: The number that appears the most in a set of numbers
Range: The difference between the highest and lowest
number in a set of numbers.
Quartile: When data in asset are arranged in order, quartiles
Textbook Connection
are the numbers that split the data into quarters. Holt Mathematics Course 2
Outlier: A value that is very far away from most of the values
Chapter 4
in a data set.
Scatter plot: A graph that shows the general relationship
Lessons 1-3
between two sets of data. Chapter 7
Box & Whisker plot: A diagram that summarizes data using All lessons
the median, the upper and lower quartiles, and the extreme
values. A box is drawn around the quartile value and whiskers
extend from each quartile to the extreme data points. Web Resources
Sample: a selection from a population go.hrw.com -textbook web resource
Parameter: a quantity that describes a statistical population  http://regentsprep.org/Regents/
Statistic: the collection, organization, and interpretation of math/data/boxwhisk.htm
data
 http://www.purplemath.com/
Dependent Variable: a variable whose value is determined by
modules/boxwhisk.htm
other variables in a function
 http://regentsprep.org/Regents/
For examples & help with vocabulary, visit: math/data/scatter.htm
www.intermath-uga.gatech.edu  http://www.worsleyschool.net/
science/files/scatter/plots3.html
 Practice Problems
Study 7 3 5 2 6 7 1 2 7 1
hours
Test 100 80 90 75 80 90 50 65 85 40
score
Create a scatter plot. Label your axis’ and find if there is a correlation.

Use the following data and create a box & whisker plot: Test scores: 90, 85,
80, 82, 95, 78, 82, 81. Label the quartiles. What is the range? What percent
of the tests were 82% or lower?

Answers:

Scatter Plot

120 Answers:
100 A
80
An
S c o re s

60

40

20

0
0 2 4 6 8
Hours

Yes, Positive correlation

78 80 82 90 95

Range=17
62.5% of the tests were 82% or lower.