Mrs. Eddy

Computer Lab

Graphing and Mean, Median, Mode with Excel

 

Introduction: Graphing and Mean, Median, Mode with Excel.  Mean, Median, and Mode will be reinforced in the computer lab. Students will be researching on the internet, creating a survey in Microsoft word, collecting data, plugging recorded data into Microsoft excel, and then manipulating the data using excel formulas and chart wizard.

 

Grade Level: 8

 

Time Span: 5 class periods (45 min each)

 

Standards:

Technology:

 

Math:

Students engage in problem solving, communicating, reasoning, connecting, and representing as they:

AI.D.1       Select, create, and interpret an appropriate graphical representation (e.g., scatterplot, table, stem-and-leaf plots, circle graph, line graph, and line plot) for a set of data and use appropriate statistics (e.g., mean, median, range, and mode) to communicate information about the data. Use these notions to compare different sets of data. (10.D.1)

AI.D.2       Approximate a line of best fit (trend line) given a set of data (e.g., scatterplot). Use technology when appropriate. (10.D.2)

AI.D.3       Describe and explain how the relative sizes of a sample and the population affect the validity of predictions from a set of data. (10.D.3)

 

 

Lesson Plan:

Students will go to Math League website and read about Mean, Median and Mode as well as the three types of graphs; bar, pie, and line. These math concepts are not new to eighth grade students so this website acts as a refresher.

 

Next students will practice mean, median, and mode on worksheet provided, as well as their graphing skills.

 

Next students will pair up and research/brainstorm a survey for their peers. Students may use the internet to browse ideas. Once a topic is chosen, students will create their survey on a Microsoft word document. This survey should be one simple question and the word document is where students can record results.

 

Students will tally up survey results and plug data into an excel spreadsheet. (See teacher example).

 

Students will use the sort feature as well as mean, median, and mode formulas.

 

Lastly, students will create three different graphs to display their findings; bar, line, and pie.