Relationships between two variables
Students are expected to use a variety of statistical techniques in order to make connections between two variables. The resources in this list provide students with the opportunity to describe simple mathematical relationships between two variables in observational and experimental contexts.
Visit the secondary mathematics webpage to access all lists.
Displaying Data
This resource contains a pack of games, investigations, worksheets and practical activities.
Activities appropriate to this topic are: Feeling hungry exploring what a 'hunger' graph may look like, Second hand cars; spotting trends to help predict how much should be paid, Line of best fit exploring connections between shoe size and height, Population pyramids contains useful data which could be used to spot trends.
Statistical Diagrams
This resource covers a range of statistical topics. The section of statistical diagrams appropriate to this topic is section 8.3 onwards which contains explanations, examples and exercises requiring students to plot scatter diagrams, draw lines of best fit, find the equation of the line of best fit and use the line of best fit to estimate values. Students also have to consider interpolation and extrapolation.
The activities file contains the activity Correlation, a useful activity suggesting a practical experiment to explore correlation whilst the activity Football results explores the connections between the number of goals scored by a team at home and the number scored away from home.
Statistics Toolkit
This toolkit explores statistical aspects of the Artic expedition, including the 'spin' that can be put on statistical evidence to make it sound positive or negative, and methods to predict future trends in Arctic climate change.
The section appropriate to this topic is Predicting the trend in which students analyse temperatures over time to spot connections and make predictions.
Collecting Data
This resource contains five work cards with practical activities requiring students to perform a vehicle survey, compare hand and foot size, survey shoe size, consider methods of how to test, hypothesise, and analyse data to decide which hand works the hardest when typing. The data collected can then be used to draw appropriate graphs in order to spot trends and make connections.
New National Curriculum Mathematics 6
The handling data section of this text book covers displaying data and dealing with continuous data. Beginning on page 25 of the pdf there is a good section on scatter graphs. Students begin by comparing the length and the width of a leaf. There are useful discusson points showing a scatter diagram and asking students to say what the variables could be. Different types of correlation are discussed and a number of practical activities are suggested.
Census at School
This collection of material contains twenty one resources. The activities provide opportunities for students to collect data about themselves and improve understanding of a data gathering process, access large and meaningful data sets and make comparisons between the student responses in different countries. Appropriate activities include: Cars Galore in which students compare car ownership in different regions and interpret line graphs. In the extension task, students are required to read two-way tables and draw comparative bar charts.
Exploring Statistics
Although this resource is aimed at an older audience, there are some activity suggestions which can be used as stimulus for teachers planning activities appropriate to a younger audience. For example, short investigations 8, Battle of the sexes, which suggests experiments to investigate whether there are different styles of thinking between boys and girls. Long investigations 16 Taking the long view considers how to iron out seasonal fluctuations in order to spot trends and make predictions.
