In this second post of a series, I continue to promote the wonderful lessons in 10 Things All Mathematicians and Scientists Must Know by Ed Zaccaro (see also Occam’s Razor, Critical Thinking, Big Foot, and Aliens).
The lessons in Chapter 7, “Don’t Be Fooled By Statistics” are so important for our students today. The scenarios, cartoons, and illustrations presented in the book provide clear and kid-friendly content for teaching the vital skills of data analysis. I used these lessons mostly with my 5th-grade GT students.
Here are just a few extra resources you might like to use to supplement and augment the concepts in Chapter 7 of the book.
SLOW REVEAL GRAPHS
Revealing information a little at a time is a strategy that can be used across disciplines, and slow-reveal graphs are a wonderful way to get kids critically thinking about all kinds of data representation. The video below includes an example of this and also a “Which One Doesn’t Belong” problem using graphs. Although this lesson moves a little slowly for advanced students, if slow reveal graphs are new to you, it’s worth viewing to see a demo of such a lesson. (Note: Advance to 1:30 to bypass the introduction.) And, of course, these are fantastic lessons to use with younger students as well.
Find slow reveal graphs of all kinds here, prepared by contributors at this site, Slow Reveal Graphs.
Watch for updates to this post and please share any lessons or resources you can add to this in the comments below!