This unit concerns geographical, age, grade, and survey answers which can be used to study a population of students. It also contains lesson plans on measurement and graphing that science students at Polly T. McCabe Center enjoyed and did without difficulty.
The lesson plans are all “hands on” exercises such as measuring biological specimens to see the variety of sizes in one group, or measuring the rate of the student’s own heartbeat before and after exercise, or measuring the rate of growth of a fast growing plant from seed. Students need strengthening in estimation of sizes and actual measuring skills. Some probability was approached as the biology students did a lesson showing there is about a 50% chance, or probability, that the baby will be born a boy.
One of the greatest benefits I saw from “trying out” these lesson plans was the cooperation and good feeling produced in a class when each student contributed by pooling his data and results in the total picture. Then the graphing and interpretation was a classroom exercise, with the teacher participating too.
(Recommended for Science classes, grades 6-8; Physical Science classes, grade 9; and Biology classes, grade 10)
Key Words
Statistics Basic Skills Mathematics Graphs Construction Investigation Science
