Chapter 11 covers the process of collecting data, categorizing and displaying the data, and how to use that data to answer our questions. This is what we did with the task that was presented in class. Chapter 11 says that the first goal in Data Analysis and Probability is to "formulate questions that can be addressed with data and collect, organize, and display relevant data to answer them." This is exactly what we did in class. We came up with a list of questions about our wrists. This is an appropriate topic because chapter 11 talks about how children are the most interested in themselves. Once we came up with the list of questions, we found questions that we could answer with data. We chose to find out what the sizes of our wrists are. We then found the measurements and listed them in a chart. From that chart we were able to see what was wrong with the way we found our data. The children would need to be able to come up with these conditions like we did as a class. This would make their data meaningful and help find the answer to the question. The students would have to understand the concept of classifying to be able to organize and compare the data that they found. We may compare the sizes of our wrists among individual, among classes, or among grade levels. This would require that the students have certain criterion set for their data collection to get an accurate picture of the data. Chapter 11 says that children should decide on the classification. In our example the class decided on the questions and the criterion. We talked about how the measurements compared to one another. We had our information organized in a chart. We could have taken this information and used other visual representations. The students in the class would have decided what the best way to represent the data would have been. At the last part of our task, we found the measures of central tendency. We used these terms to talk about our data and to help answer our question.
2. What are you seeing related to data analysis and probability in your own classroom settings?
In my classroom, that children have started doing a weather graph as part of their calendar math in the morning. The students collect data by charting the weather each day in a bar graph. The students talk about which type of weather they have had the most of, least of, or which types of weather have had the same number of days. Today was the last day of the month so the students talked about the graph as a whole. The class also talked about how our graph might compare to one from another part of the country. For example, places are having snow now. Their graph would be different from our class' weather graph. This is all of the data analysis that the students have done in my class. There has been very little probability done in my class. At the beginning of the year, the students would pull a coin each day from the mystery cup. The coin would be placed on the magnetic tray whenever it was pulled out. The students would use the pan to predict which coin was the most likely to come out based on what was on the pan. For example, the students thought that it was more likely to pull a penny because there were many more pennies left on the board.
3. Examining the SC early childhood content standards (K-3) for data analysis and probability. How do the state standards compare to chapters 11 and 12?
Each year the South Carolina builds upon the standard for Data analysis and Probability beginning with the kindergarten standard until the third grand standard "The student will demonstrate through the mathematical processes an understanding of organizing, interpreting, analyzing and making predictions about data, the benefits of multiple representations of a data set, and the basic concepts of probability."Chapter 11 covers the first part of this standard with data analysis. The chapter talks about how children collect, organize, and interpret data. This is based on their questions and how they choose to classify the data. This again goes back to their ability to categorize information. Chapter 11 also discusses the various forms that the children can choose to represent their data. The students must understand the benefits of each type of representation in order to correctly decide which is the best way to represent their data. The last part of the standard- knowing the basic concepts of probability, is discussed in chapter 12. The students begin to understand that some events are more likely to happen than others. The students start to work with the continuum of probability as well. The continuum is a great way to help students visualize the concepts of probability.
