SCHOOL DIRECTORY
Catholic Education South Australia
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Data can be displayed in a variety of ways and making sense of the middle of that data can allow us to make inferences. 

 

Inquiry Questions

How might we use statistics to predict sporting events in terms of average and consistency?
What is the “average” Year 9 student, and how do we know?
Draw four! What impact does a rule change in Uno have on the outcome of the game?

Link to Australian Curriculum

Resources

Desmos

Desmos is an interactive graphing calculator that allows teachers to set engaging instruction, exploration and practice tasks. With many existing resources, and capacity to create your own, there are applications for all year levels and topics. 

Link: Activity Collection

A collection of activities, each used by South Australian teachers in the past, that can be used to engage students in learning activities of between 10 and 40 minutes, in concepts related to statistics. 

Consider using the activity builder to assign questions that will allow you to gauge student understanding. 

 

ReSolve

The reSolve teaching resources provide exemplary materials from Years F to 10. They put into practice the elements of the reSolve Protocol and promote fluency, deep understanding, strategic problem solving, and mathematical reasoning. A number of the resources have been made by South Australian teachers, and all are aligned with the Australian Curriculum 

Link: ReSolve Inquiry - Hot Streaks

With so many sports being cancelled, this can be a great activity for engaging with some physical activity at home. The collection of data in this work aims to test the existence of being on a “hot streak”. The example used involves coin-flipping, but in the remote classroom, students can create their own game at home, or even try shooting washing into the laundry basket, or rubbish into the bin, to collect their data. 

 

The Improving Mathematics Education in Schools (TIMES) Project

The TIMES project, by the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute, provides modules that are written for teachers. Each module contains a discussion of a component of the mathematics curriculum from early primary up to the end of Year 10.  

Link: Data Investigation

This module outlines a statistical inquiry, that can be adapted to suit the remote learning context and give opportunities for students to collaborate online, or, to collect data from their homes. A task that is often highly engaging for students of this year level is to find out who the “average” year 9 is. The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released their “typical” Australian, which can be used as a comparison. 

Link: Probability Module

After using the prompt that the makers of Uno have officially said you cannot put a draw 4 on top of a draw 2, students can explore the impact of rule changes through card games such as this by applying concepts of probability.  

Diagnostic Questions

Diagnostic questions are designed to help identify, and crucially understand students' mistakes and misconceptions in an efficient and accurate manner. In a remote learning environment, these questions are vital for checking on progress. At crucial moments in a lesson, set a diagnostic question or two to quickly ascertain the progress of the class, and importantly, understand misconceptions quickly, which can be hard to achieve in a remote environment. You will need to sign in (for free) to access. 

Link: Diagnostic Question Set

This set of questions relates to statistics. After a period of content delivery or inquiry, set one or two diagnostic questions, to each member of the class via the Learning Management System, collect the results and identify any student or group of students that have misconceptions that you can then address.