Course Guide - USAID Teacher Education Project

4. Collecting the data5. Organizing the data6. Displaying the data7. Interpreting the dataStudents also will 1) look at misleading graphs that serve as warnings of what not todo when representing data, 2) learn to differentiate between categorical and numericaldata, and 3) consider other forms of data displays such as weather maps and dynamicelectronic information displays (e.g., a heart monitor) that use mathematical data toprovide information quickly and in real time.Have students sit in 4-6 person groups for this activity.1) Pose a question: What do the students in this class think about the subjects theyare preparing to teach?2) Determine the data needed to answer the following survey question such as: Whenyou were in high school, what was your favourite subject: literature, mathematics,social studies, science, or something else?3) Create a data collection plan: Have students raise their hands as you ask abouttheir favourite subject in the above five categories.How did students feel about this informal method of data collection? Did it happentoo quickly? Did they note the number of students who favoured each topic? Werethere some students who liked more than one subject? How could data be collected—on paper—to reflect what just happened?4) Collect the data: Ask students in their table groups to note their favourite subjectsand put that information on paper.Do not tell students how to do this, but observe how they complete the task.Did they use numbers? Tally marks? Another graphic model? Did they consider itimportant to note each others' names? If there were students who enjoyed more thanone subject, how did the group members resolve that issue?5) Organize the data: Bring the class back together and ask how the data collectedfrom multiple table groups can be organized to create a class profile?Have each group share the way they collected their data. Frequently table groups willuse several different methods, which can emphasize that if data is to be combinedfrom several sources there needs to be a uniform data collection system.Once they discover how other groups handled the information, what do they suggestfor aggregating their data? Once they have come to agreement, combine the data.6) Create a data display: Ask students to confer in their small groups regarding howthe whole class data could be displayed. Some may want to create a tally chart.Others may suggest a bar graph. Or a circle graph, based on percentages. (If someonesuggests a line graph, which is what youngsters might do, just note the idea at this