Comparing data using statistical measures

This is a concept development lesson, designed to help students make meaningful comparisons between data sets. There is a particular focus on central tendency and variability. Topics covered include:

• Mean
• Median
• Outliers
• Standard deviation
• Mean absolute deviation

The context for the lesson is getting to work using different modes of transport. The initial work looks at data showing how long a journey takes when travelling by car, bicycle, or a combination of train and walking. Students must use the same data set to justify two different recommendations.  

There then follows a series of partial data sets where students must fill in missing data and statistical measures. They must also justify their recommended mode of transport based on the data.

There are some sections of the lesson that could be adapted to make it suitable for younger students, with the topics required being limited to mean, median and outliers. There are pre-lesson and post-lesson formative assessment tasks. Detailed teacher notes give suggestions on questioning and how to use the resources. Full solutions are given for each of the sections.

This is a concept development lesson from the Mathematics Assessment Resource Service, a collaboration between UC Berkeley and the Shell Centre team at the University of Nottingham. Further information on the collection is given here.