Balancing act

Students play in pairs, 5 metres apart, in their own space either on the playground or in the classroom.

Students participate in data experiment, predicting, collecting, exploring and communicating results when catching and throwing a bean bag.

Part 1: Estimate

Students estimate how many throws they think they will catch out of 7.
Record this data to later graph in a side-by-side column graph.
Students stand on one leg, 5 metres apart and count how many times they catch the bean bag.
Each student must pass the bean bag 7 times.
Students record their findings.
Teacher asks ‘What type of table could you use to record your estimations and results?’
After the first attempt, students record their next estimation based on their last results. Students complete the task 5 times.
Teacher asks; “Do you think you will improve?” “If you had to do this again how would you plan to keep your data?” Can anyone create a table that would work for everyone?”

Part 2: Exploring data

Challenge students to create a two-way table that is titled “Estimation v’s My Reality - catching on one foot” using the data collected in this task.
Students then use the data in their table to construct a side-by-side column graph.
Teacher asks “What are the essential components of a side by side column graph?” “What data are we comparing?” “How does this data need to be structured in order for us to compare?”

Part 3: Communicating results