Mean, Median, Mode

Expectations:

• B2.1 use the properties of operations, and the relationships between addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, to solve problems involving whole numbers, including those requiring more than one operation, and check calculations

• D1.5 determine the mean and the median and identify the mode(s), if any, for various data sets involving whole numbers, and explain what each of these measures indicates about the data.

Big Idea:

Sometimes a large set of data can be usefully described using a summary statistic, usually a single meaningful number that describes the entire set or a combination of different statistics. The number might describe the values of individual pieces of data and/or how the data is distributed or spread.

Materials

• Linking Cubes

• Playing cards

• Calculator

Mean: When students are first introduced to the concept of mean, they should have opportunities to act it out and explore it more concretely. To model the grouping situation shown below, students could arrange themselves into one group of 3, one group of 4, two groups of 5, one group of 6 and one group of 7 and then redistribute themselves into six equal groups to find out (covid friendly examples would be using linking cubes, candies, etc.)use different colours of linking cubes for each original group.(3 yellow; 4 green; 10 red; 6 orange; 7 blue).