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Lesson 1-01 Variation in Data
Lesson 1-01 Variation in Data
Describing Data
Lesson 1: Variation in Data
TIME FRAME: 1 hour session
OVERVIEW OF LESSON
In this activity, students will be asked to provide some data that will be submitted for
consolidation by the teacher for future lessons. Data on heights and weights, for instance, will be
used for calculating Body Mass Index in Lesson 3. Students will also discuss the concept of
statistical questions (in relation to non-statistical ones), then work in groups to discover variation
in data. Students will be asked to imagine that the data they obtained in their groups would now
be collected for much larger groups (the entire class, all grade 11 students in school, all grade 11
students in the district), and to discuss how data could be summarized.
LEARNING COMPETENCIES: At the end of the lesson, the learner should be able to:
Tell students that data are collected to answer statistical questions, the answers of which can
change depending on who it is asked to, and when it is asked (Non-statistical questions are
questions that anticipate a single answer.)
Give a 5 minute exercise to the students on distinguishing statistical questions from non-
statistical questions.
Ask students which of the following are statistical questions and why:
How old is student number 3 (in the class list)? (Not a statistical question since only
a particular fact, the age of student number 3, is of interest)
How old are the people who watch the most recent episode of the television show
“Maalaala Mo Kaya?” (Statistical question since this will require getting data on
ages of all viewers of the tv show)
(Source: http://www.cartoonstock.com)
What is their height (in cm?) and weight (in kg)? the age of their mother?
What is their favorite color?
How do they feel today?
Or other questions (that will not yield a sensitive response):
Are the five students satisfied with the way the mayor does his/her job? (yes, no,
unsure, no opinion)
How many hours did the students watch television during the past seven days?
How many hours did they go on facebook yesterday?
Explanatory Note about Data Collection Activity: The questions listed above are indicative
to help students learn that data has variation. It is crucial to ask questions of interest that are
not culturally sensitive.
After 5 minutes of sharing answers with each other, ask students whether the answers shared
with each other were the same, or whether they varied.
Tell students to imagine that these same questions would now be asked of all grade 11
students in the entire school, or in the entire district.
Ask them how they would summarize the information collected.
Possible Answers:
Albert, J. R. G. (2008).Basic Statistics for the Tertiary Level (ed. Roberto Padua, Welfredo
Patungan, Nelia Marquez), published by Rex Bookstore.
Workbooks in Statistics 1: 11th Edition, Institute of Statistics, UP Los Banos, College Laguna
4031
https://www.khanacademy.org/math/probability/statistical-studies/statistical-questions/v/
statistical-questions
https://www.illustrativemathematics.org/content-standards/tasks/703
6. Age of mother (as of her last birthday in years) : _________________________ (if mother
deceased, provide age if she were alive)
12. On a scale from 1 (very unhappy) to 10 (happiest), how do you feel today? : ____________
Student ID
Question
1.
2.
3.
How can we summarize the data collected for each of the questions above (especially if we
consolidate the data from the entire class) ?
ANSWER: Statistical questions are answered by collecting data with variation (and consequently
summaries for the data will be required), while non-statistical questions are questions where answer
require specific facts (and not data with variation), so summary statistics and graphs will not be needed
for non-statistical questions.
2. Ten persons were randomly selected and asked how many letters were in their middle names,
and we received the following data: 6, 6, 7, 12, 15, 7, 8, 7, 6, 7
Answer:
4
3
Frequency
21
0
5 10 15
letters
x x x
x x x x x
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
x – one night
What was the most sleep he got in one night? __________________ Answer: 12 hrs
What was the least amount of sleep he got in one night? ________________ Answer: 7 hrs
What is the most common amount of sleep I get? _________________ Answer:8 hrs
How many nights did he sleep less than 9 hours? _________________ Answer: 6 nights
How many nights did he sleep more than 9 hours? _____________ Answer: 2 nights
Frequency
6 Favorite Sport
5
4
3
2
1
0
Chess Basketball Football Volleyball
Sport
What is the most popular type of dog from the data? Answer: Basketball
How many of Ronald’s friends that were questioned do not consider Basketball or Football
as their favorite sport? Answer: 5
How many friends did Ronald question? Answer : 12
Explanatory Note: Teachers have the option to just ask this assessment orally to the entire class, or
to group students and ask them to identify answers, or to give this as homework, or to use some
questions/items here for a chapter examination.