Represent & Interpret Data

Creating & Interpreting Data in Line Plots

Prior to Lesson: If possible, have students collect data that is interesting to them. This can be done online or even using a survey to collect data from classmates. The should collect quantitive data, such as the number of free throw shots basketball players make in a game, heights of a kind of animal, or the number of pencils students have in their desk. This allows students to feel connected to the the information they are working with. If this is not an option, you can use the data provided in the tables below.

1. Have students collect data from each other, the internet, or one of the tables provided above.

2. Instruct students on how to create a line plot, corresponding x's to data points.

3. Have students make observations on their line plot. What does the organization of data tell you?

4. What is the largest data point (height, percentage, or minutes)? What is the smallest? What is the range of data? (largest - smallest)

5. What data point is the most common? What does this tell you?

6. What is the average? What does the average mean?

7. What conclusions can you draw from your data?

Focus Content Area Standards

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.5.MD.B.2

Make a line plot to display a data set of measurements in fractions of a unit (1/2, 1/4, 1/8). Use operations on fractions for this grade to solve problems involving information presented in line plots. For example, given different measurements of liquid in identical beakers, find the amount of liquid each beaker would contain if the total amount in all the beakers were redistributed equally.

Standards for Mathematical Practice

CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP1 Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.

CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP2 Reason abstractly and quantitatively.

CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP4 Model with mathematics.

CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP5 Use appropriate tools strategically.

CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP6 Attend to precision.

CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP7 Look for and make use of structure.