Mairead's Reflection:
After getting everyone started on this activity at different times - as they finished Part I. I finally had everyone to a stage where they had compared there predicted graph to the real graph. I'm just realizing now as I'm writing this that I didn't talk to them about the way they labeled their axes or the numbers they chose to put on there - I wish I had done that. Instead we focused on how the predicted graphs (shape) were different from the actual graph. Some people had graphed number of aids cases each year instead of the cumulative number and so they had an increasing and then decreasing graph. One of the other students explained that while this was the right idea for the trend it was not right for the graph because of the cumulative part. We then saw how we could see that trend in the cumulative graph (as it was increasing by less and less). I really like this activity as we get to see a graph that does not hold the full picture even though it gives us a lot of information. For instance, how were the cases recorded? what caused the change in the early nineties - there was a change in definition of AIDS at this time so as to make it harder to be declared as having full blown AIDS. What role has increased education and medical knowledge played? What was the attitude to AIDS and how has it changed - would that effect the data at all. It was a pretty interesting discussion and a great reminder that we cannot work with data and model it without remembering that the data comes from the real world and therefore may have many aspects that we should take into consideration. Anyway overall it went well - I do wish I'd emphasized the labeling more as this is one thing that drives me crazy in the project stages - graphs not well labeled. I will have to remember to do this in a later activity. I told them that they would have to hand in both parts the next day. I plan to move onto 1.1A in class on Wednesday.