Too Much social Media

Expectations:

• D1.3 select from among a variety of graphs, including histograms and broken-line graphs, the type of graph best suited to represent various sets of data; display the data in the graphs with proper sources, titles, and labels, and appropriate scales; and justify their choice of graphs

• C4 apply the process of mathematical modelling to represent, analyse, make predictions, and provide insight into real-life situations

Key Concept:

• Collection and organization of data; data relationships

***Students will need experience analyzing different types of graphs (including stem-and-leaf plots and multiple bar graphs) and finding the mean, median, and mode using sets of data before engaging in this multi-day lesson.

Materials

• Weekly Gaming Averages: https://www.statista.com/outlook/203/108/video-games/canada#market-arpu

• Anticipation Guide

• Gaming Habits Parent Communication Letter

• Rubric

• SEL Self-Assessments (French and English) and Teacher Rubric

Tell students that you have just read an article that discusses the positive and negative effects that social media has on children. You are wondering how many hours students in your school spend time viewing social media and streaming each week. Ask students to predict that following:

• How many hours do you spend time on your iPad each week?

• How many hours do you spend on social media (Facebook, Instagram, ect.) versus streaming videos (i.e. Netflix, Prime, Disney+, etc.)?

• What is the average for our class for social media? For streaming?

• Will our class average be different from averages for other generational groups (i.e. class vs. friends and family in our age group vs. parents, aunts and uncles)? How? Why?

Facilitate a sharing of ideas and reasons.

Tell students that they will be conducting a survey among different generations of their family and friends, to determine how much time they spend on social media/streaming and whether there are differences between generations. Before they conduct this survey, students will collect data from their own class.

Pose the problem:

“Does the amount of time people spend on social media weekly increase, decrease, or stay the same between generational groups? Does the amount of time people spend streaming videos weekly increase, decrease, or stay the same between generational groups? Are there more people spending time on social media versus streaming videos?

Designing the Survey

Ask students to design the survey they will use to collect the data they need to answer this question.

Students may encounter the following difficulties when designing their survey:

• Times may be reported in different and incompatible formats, such as 10.5 hours, 10 ½ hours, 630 minutes.

• If they pose a question such as “How much time do you spend on Facebook in a week?” answers might be qualitative (a lot, too much, I don’t know).

• If times are unspecified, some responses might cover only weekdays while others might reflect social media/streaming time over a seven-day week.

Students need to experience these difficulties first hand and work through the “messiness” of fine-tuning questions in order to collect the data they need. Guiding them through the experience, rather than giving them prepared questions that will avoid these pitfalls, will result in more enduring learning. Have students survey their classmates first. This experience will help them prepare and hone the question that they will use to survey the rest of the school.

Collecting the Data

Start by having students track the amount of time they themselves spend both streaming and on social media in a week. Students can track the data using the “Weekly Report”/Screen time function on their iPads or phones. (Go to “settings”, “screen time” and then “See all activity” to get a breakdown of time spent on various apps. Then ask students to work with a partner and design a survey to collect data on the amount of time each of their classmates spent on social media and streaming in that week. In addition to the survey question or questions, have the partners decide on the instrument they will use to gather the data. They could consider a class list or a table. At the end of the week, set aside 20-30 minutes to let students survey their classmates.

After each pair of students has gathered information on all classmates, including themselves, lead a discussion on the process of collecting the data, on the difficulties encountered, and on lessons learned. Ask partners to refine their question.

Lead a class discussion to decide upon the question and data collection tool to be used to survey different generations among their family and friends (i.e. parents, uncles and aunts vs. siblings and friends in a similar age group). With the students, decide upon a reasonable number of how many people to survey from each generational group.

Analyzing the Data

Ask students to create a bar graph for both streaming and for social media. Ask the following questions to help focus discussion and promote higher-level thinking:

• What is the general shape of the data?

• How is the data spread out? Are there many clusters? Are there unusually high or low values?

• What is the mode in this set of data? How did you find it? What does the mode tell us?

• What is the median in this set of data? How did you find it? What does the median tell us?

• What is the range of values your group thinks is typical?

• What can you say about the number of hours you yourself spend streaming/on social media in a week? Are the hours similar to those of most of your classmates?

• Will the number of hours that students spend time on social media/streaming decrease, increase, or stay the same as they get older? What is your group's prediction?

Answering the Question

To determine whether students spend more time on social media or streaming as they grow older, it is necessary for students to compare two sets of data. The mode and median can be used as comparators. Ask students to create a histogram for streaming and for social media usage. Use the following starter questions to help them explore the relationship in the data:

• Which graph, a bar graph or a histogram, is most useful in representing and analyzing the data you collected?

• According to your group's predictions, which age group spends the most time streaming? On social media?

• Does the number of hours significantly change from one age group to the next?

• If there is an increase or a decrease, is it steady and constant or does the number of hours move up and down across age groups?

During this time, circulate among the groups and listen to their discussions. Ask more probing questions or lead students back to similar ideas where necessary.

Reconvene the class. Ask the groups to share their findings with one another.

Pose the following questions to students:

• Did the data support your predictions?

• What trends did your group observe when you compared the various class data?

• Which was more useful to you in determining trends: the mode or the median? Why?

• What reasons can you give to explain the shape of the data?

• Would you expect the data you have collected to be representative of other schools in our community? Across Ontario? Across Canada? Around the World?

Observation:

Observation and discussion guided by key questions can provide a good sense of student understanding. Consider the following:

• Can students collect, organize, and display primary data using a variety of graphs?

• Can students distinguish among methods of data organization?

• Can students describe similarities and differences between two sets of data?

• Can students choose appropriate scales to display the range of data?

• Can students describe the shape of a set of data, using mathematical vocabulary?

• Can students read, interpret, and draw conclusions from primary and secondary data?

• Can students use a variety of tools to present data graphically?

• Can students find the median in a set of data?

• Can students compare the median and mode and explain the information these measures provide?

• Can students explain the stability of the median? In other words, what effect do extreme values in a set of data have on the median?

Performance Tasks:

The following are some possible assessment tasks for students:

• Using a set of data provided, represent the data graphically, using a stem-and-leaf plot, a multiple bar graph, and one other graph of your choice. Explain which graphic representation would be most appropriate and why.

• Using multiple sets of data, calculate the median and mode and explain what information these measures give us.

• Using one set of data, manipulate the data to change the median, and describe the effect this change has on the mode and median.

Rubric

SEL Self-Assessments (French and English) and Teacher Rubric

Ask students to use the collected data to answer the following non-mathematical questions:

• What factors may affect the amount of time various age groups spend time on social media/streaming in a week?

• What possible positive and negative effects might social media or streaming have on a student’s health and fitness? General knowledge? Contact with family members? Involvement in other activities? Homework completion? Consumer habits? Contact with friends?

• Considering the data you collected, the research you did, and the answers you gave to the previous question, do you feel that you, your classmates, and/or your schoolmates spend too much time on social media or streaming? If so, what steps would you like to take to communicate that message? If you don’t think you spend too much time gaming, how could you encourage those who do to change their habits?

Advertising Campaign: Have the class design an advertising campaign to encourage classmates and schoolmates to spend less time on their devices and be more physically active in their leisure time. Ask students to present arguments in their campaign that will make sense and be convincing, and to use the data they have collected to support their arguments. (Could use: iMovie, Keynote, Pages / Possible cross-curricular connections to Health, Oral Language, Art)

Change Over Time?: Ask students to collect data again after one month (using the same question) and compare the original set of data with the new set. In a follow-up discussion, ask students to use the data to determine whether their advertising campaign has been successful.

Infographic Grade 6 Lesson Plan: (See link to Summative lesson plan)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/15II3ZGXg9L8q5uLKFJ3G3QAasFulUYKdH4MuK0-i1Lc/edit?usp=sharing