Objectives: The purpose of this activity is to examine how a real world phenomenon is represented graphically and why this representation can help us answer questions about the phenomenon.
Preliminaries/Lead-In: Talk about the predictions they made from Part I of this activity. Ask them to share any of the points that arose when the small groups compared their predictions.
Suggested Procedures: Let them work on the activity in small groups. I will probably talk to them after b to discuss the fact that this is a graph with cumulative aids cases on there and not just the new cases each year - some students tend to be confused on this point. I then talk to them again at the end of the worksheet and ask them to share some of their answers - I make sure we come to a consensus on d and that everyone understands this. I might follow this up by asking how many new cases were reported in 1998 - depending on time? I then see what questions they came up with on e.
Wrap-Up/Take-Away: The main take away point from this activity is how to read a graph and how plotting data from a real world phenomenon might help us predict what will happen in the future. I might ask them for other examples where they have seen this - some might have seen some of the global warming graphs....
Possible Homework:
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