Data Management & Probability- Week 10

Different Types of Graphs, Tables, Charts. Google. 2016

This past week was all about DATA and PROBABILITY! We started off the class with Pat asking a question which created an open discussion about estimating! We were asked, "Did anyone do any estimating today?" Everyone looked around for a moment and then you could see the light bulbs go on in everyone's minds. OF COURSE WE DID! Our days are filled with estimating, my peers began sharing their estimating experiences. For example, some estimated how long it would take to get to school? How much farther can I drive my car before getting gas? Can I get my forum posts done before math class? If it's raining will there be more traffic getting to school? The estimates went on and on, all different for each student but also many students had experienced the same type of estimates.

This activity was a great way to open up the lesson and have students apply a math topic to their everyday lives. As future teachers we will get the same old question, "But Ms. Why do we have to learn this, I'll never use it in my everyday life?" or, "Ms. How does this apply to the real world, math is so stupid." I have learned throughout this course that it is important to provide learning opportunities that coincide with everyday experiences, in order for students to be successful in math. If students can understand math concepts and see that they apply in everything they do, the students will take more away from the lesson and also look at math in a fun and informative way.

Pat also showed us an excellent video about Growth Mindset. Below is a cute video that students of all ages can relate to. The video can also relate to other subjects not just specifically math, and encourage students to have a Growth Mindset.



This video is part of an adorable collection of videos that talk about Growth Mindset. There are also videos teaching students about empathy, perseverance and many more.

Pat also showed us all the different ways in which we can teach our students to display data. She brought in a cookie jar filled with oreos and had everyone in the classroom guess how many oreos were in the jar. Once everyone guessed we put our information onto a stem and leaf plot to see what data the class had gathered. This is an excellent way for students to use manipulative's. Both the cookie jar and chart paper can help students see and therefore understand math concepts better. It is important to provide a fun and interactive learning environment.

As well, Pat showed us various ways to graph information using different graphs, charts, tables, scatter plots, and histograms through online resources as well as good old fashioned chart paper. All of these tools and methods can be used to display different topics related to probability. It is important to provide our students with online resources that they can use on their computers at home, as well as interactive resources such as the smart board. These tools help to make learning fun for students of any age. As future teachers it is key to provide our students with lessons and resources that they can relate to and find appealing.

Additionally, we used linking blocks, an EXCELLENT MANIPULATIVE! (Manipulative's are my favourite, and the key to success in any math classroom), to also show different ways in which data can be represented.

Below are two pictures that I took in class.

This first picture is of the problem that was presented to the class. The idea behind the question is to create bars for each original number presented in the problem and then figure out how to make each bar the same length, therefore levelled.


The second picture is of the block towers I created. This picture shows how I levelled the bars using the connecting blocks to solve for the problem.

In conclusion, the reason Data Management is so important in our world is because it helps everyone to make predictions as well as estimates. This helps individuals to know what to expect, who doesn't want to be prepared. This week provided me with some valuable insight. For my first teaching block I will be teaching the unit on Data Management and Probability. This week, Pat provided her class with so many valuable resources and insight into how to properly teach this unit. I definitely feel more prepared as a result of Pat's lesson and the important information that our course textbook highlights. There are tones of fun and interesting activities that I can pull from our course text to help me teach my first math unit to my grade 7s and 8s. Hopefully it will be a great success!

Wish me luck!

Cheers, Courtney