Technological Graphing

10 min

Teacher Prep
Required Preparation

In the “Doing Math” teacher section of the Math Community Chart, add 2–5 commitments you have for what your teaching practice “looks like” and “sounds like” this year.

Narrative

The mathematical purpose of this activity is to gain familiarity with entering data into a spreadsheet and to prepare students for finding statistics using technology.

Launch

Arrange students in groups of 2. If students are using the digital version of the materials, show them how to open the GeoGebra spreadsheet app in the math tools. If students are using the print version of the materials, they can access the GeoGebra spreadsheet app at www.geogebra.org/spreadsheet. If students will be using statistical technology other than GeoGebra for this activity, prepare alternate instructions.

Make sure students input the data in one column, even though the data are represented in two columns in the task statement.

Student Task

Open a spreadsheet window and enter the data so that each value is in its own cell in column A.

  1. How many values are in the spreadsheet? Explain your reasoning.
  2. If you entered the data in the order that the values are listed, the number 7 is in the cell at position A1 and the number 5 is in cell A5. List all of the cells that contain the number 13.
  3. In cell C1 type the word “Sum,” in C2 type “Mean,” and in C3 type “Median.” You may wish to double-click or drag the vertical line between columns C and D to allow the entire words to be seen.
A
1 7
2 8
3 4
4 13
5 5
6 15
7 14
8 8
9 12
10 2
A
11 8
12 13
13 12
14 13
15 6
16 1
17 9
18 4
19 9
20 15

Sample Response

  1. 20 since the rows are numbered and the last value is next to 20.
  2. A4, A12, and A14.
  3. No response required.
Activity Synthesis (Teacher Notes)

The goal is to make sure that students know how to type data into a spreadsheet and to locate values in the spreadsheet by row and column. The locations will be referred to with spreadsheet functions in upcoming activities. Here are some questions for discussion.

  • “What value is in cell A7?” (14)
  • “What was interesting or challenging about this activity?” (I never knew that you could describe each cell in a spreadsheet using the row and column labels.)

Math Community

After the Warm-up, display the Math Community Chart with the “Doing Math” actions added to the teacher section for all to see. Give students 1 minute to review. Then share 2–3 key points from the teacher section and your reasoning for adding them. For example, 

  • If “questioning vs. telling,” a shared reason could focus on your belief that students are capable mathematical thinkers and your desire to understand how students are making meaning of the mathematics.
  • If “listening,” a shared reason could be that sometimes you want to sit quietly with a group just to listen and hear student thinking and not because you think the group needs help or is off-track.

After sharing, tell students that they will have the opportunity to suggest additions to the teacher section during the Cool-down. 

Standards
Building On
  • HSS-ID.A.2·Use statistics appropriate to the shape of the data distribution to compare center (median, mean) and spread (interquartile range, standard deviation) of two or more different data sets.
  • S-ID.2·Use statistics appropriate to the shape of the data distribution to compare center (median, mean) and spread (interquartile range, standard deviation) of two or more different data sets.
  • S-ID.2·Use statistics appropriate to the shape of the data distribution to compare center (median, mean) and spread (interquartile range, standard deviation) of two or more different data sets.
  • S-ID.2·Use statistics appropriate to the shape of the data distribution to compare center (median, mean) and spread (interquartile range, standard deviation) of two or more different data sets.

15 min

10 min