Batteries, Cell Phones, Dalmatians, and Pumpkin Growth: Data Representation and Analysis (Contexts for Learning Mathematics)

Batteries, Cell Phones, Dalmatians, and Pumpkin Growth is a grade 5 curriculum unit in the Contexts for Learning Mathematics series--a K-5 mathematics series based on inquiry and used in numerous elementary schools around the world. The focus of this unit is the extension of the development of children’s ideas about data representation and analysis. A previous grade 4 CFLM unit (Sunflowers and Growth Patterns) provided children with multiple opportunities to represent data using bars, line plots, and line graphs with two marked and scaled dimensions (horizontal and vertical scales). There, emphasis was placed on: 1) comparing relations between bars; 2) interpreting line plots to examine frequencies using discrete categories, whole numbers and halves and fourths; and, 3) examining data by analyzing its shape when graphed. This grade 5 unit extends that work, including again the use of scaled axes on marked dimensions but with the decomposition of intervals encompassing more fractional sections on the scales. It also develops an understanding of range, clusters, and outliers and builds a foundation for the development of the mean, mode, and median.