Lesson 7 - Misrepresentation of Data

Lesson Goals:

By the end of this lesson, students can:

Contrast appropriate representations of data to misrepresentations of data.
Draw figures that represent data in a way that eliminates ambiguity and misrepresentaiton.

Content:

Investigate reports of studies in digital media and elsewhere for information on their planning and implementation (ACMSP277)

Critically review surveys, polls and media reports

Working Mathematically:

Identify, describe and evaluate issues such as the misrepresentation of data, apparent bias in reporting, sampling techniques used, and the wording of questions used to collect data (Communicating, Problem Solving, Reasoning)
Discuss issues to be considered in the implementation of policies that result from studies reported in the media or elsewhere (Communicating, Problem Solving)

Class Activities:

Mentimeter Ranking Activity (ICT)

Students are given two graphs representing the same data set and are asked to choose which one most appropriately represents the given data without misleading the audience. Students are exposed to a range of graph styles including column graphs, pie charts and line graphs.

Teacher introduces common ways graphs mislead their audiences such as skewing of the y-axis, omitting baselines, cherry-picked data, etc. Students are given datasets and asked to draw graphs that accurately and appropriately represent the given data.

Student Online Research (ICT)

Students are given the task of finding a misrepresentation of data that has been influenced by media. Students fill in a collaborative OneNote page containing questions about how the data has been skewed to support a socio-political agenda.

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