Students will begin submitting data that will be used in ARC Challenge #7.
DAT-2: Programs can be used to process data, which allows users to discover information and create new knowledge.
DAT-2.A: Describe what information can be extracted from data.
DAT-2.A.1: Information is the collection of facts and patterns extracted from data.
DAT-2.A.2: Data provide opportunities for identifying trends, making connections, and addressing problems.
DAT-2.A.3: Digitally processed data may show correlation between variables. A correlation found in data does not necessarily indicate that a causal relationship exists. Additional research is needed to understand the exact nature of the relationship.
DAT-2.A.4: Often, a single source does not contain the data needed to draw a conclusion. It may be necessary to combine data from a variety of sources to formulate a conclusion.
DAT-2.C.3: Depending on how data were collected, they may not be uniform. For example, if users enter data into an open field, the way they choose to abbreviate, spell, or capitalize something may vary from user to user.
DAT-2.C.4: Cleaning data is a process that makes the data uniform without changing their meaning (e.g., replacing all equivalent abbreviations, spellings, and capitalizations with the same word).
ARC Challenge #7 involves learning to collect, clean, filter and analyze data. In order to do this, there needs to be a class set of data for the students to use. This activity will be a basic form that students fill out once a day. The answers will be collected in a spreadsheet that will be used for the data analysis later in the unit.
Activity 7.6.1 (1 minute at the beginning of each class for a week)
We need to collect data to use for the first part of ARC Challenge #7 which will be introduced later in the unit. At the beginning of class each day, have your students complete an online form that asks basic questions, like "How much sleep did you get last night? How much time did you spend doing homework last night? What time did you go to sleep? etc.). You can customize the questions. Here is a sample Class Data Tracker Form. If you want to use this form, make sure you make a copy of it.
Make sure you select an online form format that will place the responses in a spreadsheet, like Google Forms. Give the students the same form each day. You want to collect a LOT of data so it all needs to feed into the same spreadsheet. Tell the students that they will be using this information for an activity later in the unit. I would suggest having them complete this form for at least a week. You can ask some colleagues to share this form with their classes. You can have all of your classes fill out the form daily.
The students will be taking this spreadsheet of information and will be going through a process of cleaning and filtering the data. Then they will analyze the data to answer questions or predict trends. When you are designing your form, make sure you include a variety of responses formats. Do not have them all multiple choice. I would suggest having several questions in which the students have to manually enter a numerical value. Part of the cleaning process is going to be having to convert written values ("four") to the numerical value 4. This will help students understand the importance of data collection design. More on that later. Here is a sample Spreadsheet of Class Data Tracker Responses.