CT Topics

Data and Analysis > GradeS 3-5

Students in grades 3-5 begin to develop a broader sense of data. They choose data to collect, organize it in table form, transform data (such as ensuring all lengths use the same unit), sort data, and create graphical representations using technology.

Grade 3 Science: Build It Fix It

• Students collect data, sort, and make conjectures/observations based on the data

• There exists the opportunity to use technology to sort data and to create graphs

Grade 3 Science: Populations and Habitat

Students explore population cycles of organisms within a habitat.

Students play Oh Deer! and collect data
Students graph the data they collected
Students graph the data using a spreadsheet
Students find and explain patterns in the data
Students explore a model based on the game
Students find new patterns and work to understand them

Students first created the line chart by hand, then used a spreadsheet to reproduce it.

Some initial observations students made:

both the blue line and the orange line go up and down
the blue is like the orange line, only upside down, at least at first

With prompting, students discussed patterns such as:

when the resources were low one year, the deer population would go down the following year
when the deer population was low one year, the resources would go up the following year

The data discussion reinforced the science concepts.

Deer die off the year after resources are low because they don’t have enough resources to survive
Resources rise the year after the deer population is low because there are fewer deer around to consume the resources
The interaction between the wolves and the deer is similar to the interaction between the deer and the resources

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