Curriculum / Math / 6th Grade / Unit 8: Statistics / Lesson 6
Math
Unit 8
6th Grade
Lesson 6 of 14
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Lesson Notes
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Define and determine the median of a data set.
The core standards covered in this lesson
6.SP.A.2 — Understand that a set of data collected to answer a statistical question has a distribution which can be described by its center, spread, and overall shape.
6.SP.B.5.C — Giving quantitative measures of center (median and/or mean) and variability (interquartile range and/or mean absolute deviation), as well as describing any overall pattern and any striking deviations from the overall pattern with reference to the context in which the data were gathered.
The essential concepts students need to demonstrate or understand to achieve the lesson objective
Suggestions for teachers to help them teach this lesson
In Lessons 6 and 7, students learn two other measures of central tendency, median and mode. Recall with students their conversations earlier in the unit around the idea of “center”, and how there were a range of values that appropriately represented “center”, not just one exact value. Extend this idea to explain that there are three common ways to think about the center of a data set (mean, median, mode), each one determined in a different way.
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Problems designed to teach key points of the lesson and guiding questions to help draw out student understanding
25-30 minutes
a. The weather in the beginning of March has varied over the last several days. You’re interested in knowing what a typical temperature of a day in early March is. To do this, you decide to find out what temperature is in the middle of the data set when it’s ordered from least to greatest.
Temperatures of the first 11 days in March (°F)
24 35 64 60 35 21 31 38 49 57 50
b. Looking at the upcoming weather report, there are predicted temperatures for the rest of the month. The list below shows the predicted temperatures for the last 10 days in March.
Predicted temperatures of the last 10 days in March (°F)
50 49 49 49 49 48 48 46 46 48
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One-pound bags of baby carrots are sold in the grocery store. Depending on the size of the carrots, the number of carrots in a bag can vary. The dot plot below shows the number of baby carrots in a sample of 16 one-pound bags from the grocery store.
What is the median number of carrots in a one-pound bag at the grocery store?
Create a data set of at least 10 numbers such that:
Median with Constraints by Daniel Luevanos is made available on Open Middle under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. Accessed April 3, 2018, 1:59 p.m..
A set of suggested resources or problem types that teachers can turn into a problem set
15-20 minutes
Give your students more opportunities to practice the skills in this lesson with a downloadable problem set aligned to the daily objective.
A task that represents the peak thinking of the lesson - mastery will indicate whether or not objective was achieved
5-10 minutes
Explain how you would find the median of a data set with 15 values in it.
The dot plot below shows the scores on a math test. Find the median test score.
The following resources include problems and activities aligned to the objective of the lesson that can be used for additional practice or to create your own problem set.
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Define and determine the mode of a data set.
Topic A: Understanding Statistics & Distributions
Define and identify statistical questions.
Standards
6.SP.A.16.SP.B.5.A
Describe data that is represented in a dot plot. Represent data using dot plots and frequency tables.
6.SP.B.46.SP.B.5.A
Represent data using histograms.
6.SP.B.4
Describe and analyze the overall shape of dot plots and histograms, including symmetry, skewness, outliers, and clusters.
6.SP.A.2
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Topic B: Measurements of Center & Variability
Define and determine the mean of a data set.
6.SP.A.26.SP.B.5.C
Determine which measure of center best represents a data set. Determine how measures of center change when data is added or removed.
6.SP.A.26.SP.B.5.D
Use the range and interquartile range to understand the spread and variability of a data set.
Understand and determine mean absolute deviation (MAD) as a measure of variability of a data set.
6.SP.B.5.C
Compare measures of center and measures of spread to describe data sets.
6.SP.A.3
Topic C: Box Plots & Circle Graphs
Represent data using box plots.
6.SP.B.46.SP.B.5
Analyze box plots and other representations, and summarize numerical data in context.
Analyze circle graphs in context.
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