Organizing Data

5 min

Teacher Prep
Setup
Students in groups of 2. Give students 1 minute of quiet think time, followed by partner- and whole-class discussions.

Narrative

The purpose of this Warm-up is to elicit the idea that organizing data is helpful for recognizing patterns, which will be useful when students work with ways or organizing data in a later activity. While students may notice and wonder many things about this table, working towards recognizing any patterns and associations are the important discussion points.

This Warm-up prompts students to familiarize themselves with the context and mathematics that might be involved by making sense of data before organizing it (MP1). 

Launch

Arrange students in groups of 2. Display the table for all to see. Ask students to think of at least 1 thing they notice and at least 1 thing they wonder. Give students 1 minute of quiet think time, and then 1 minute to discuss the things they notice and wonder with their partner.

Student Task

Here is a table of data. Each row shows 2 measurements of a triangle.

What do you notice? What do you wonder?

length of short side (in) length of perimeter (in)
0.25 1
2 7.5
6.5 22
3 9.5
0.5 2
1.25 3.5
3.5 12.5
1.5 5
4 14
1 2.5

Sample Response

Students may notice:

  • The perimeters increase when the side lengths increase.
  • The perimeters may be rounded to the nearest half unit.
  • The data are not in any obvious order.

Students may wonder:

  • Are the measurements exact?
  • Is there a pattern in the data?
  • Why measure these triangles?
Activity Synthesis (Teacher Notes)

Ask students to share the things they noticed and wondered. Record and display their responses without editing or commentary for all to see. If possible, record the relevant reasoning on or near the table. Next, ask students, “Is there anything on this list that you are wondering about now?” Encourage students to observe what is on display and respectfully ask for clarification, point out contradicting information, or voice any disagreement.

If the pattern that both values increase together does not come up during the conversation, ask students to discuss this idea.

Standards
Building Toward
  • 8.SP.A·Investigate patterns of association in bivariate data.
  • 8.SP.A·Investigate patterns of association in bivariate data.

10 min

15 min